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CHRISTIAN    ECONOMICS 


Christian  Economics 


BY 

WILFRID   RICHMOND,   M.A. 

WARDEN    OF   TRINITY   COLLEGE,    GLENALMOND 


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Ncto  ¥orfe 
E.  P.  BUTTON  AND  CO. 

PUBLISHERS.    AND     IMPORTERS 
31,  WEST  TWENTY-THIRD  STREET 

MDCCCLXXXVIII 


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PREFACE 

The  purpose  of  this  book  is  to  enforce  the  principle 
that  economic  conduct  is  matter  of  duty,  and  there- 
fore part  of  the  province  of  conscience  and  of  morals. 
It  might  seem,  accordingly,  as  if  the  book  would  have 
been  more  appropriately  called  "Economic  Morals." 
I  have  preferred  the  title,  "  Christian  Economics," 
because  the  purpose  of  the  book  is  practical,  and 
because  the  Christian  motive  and  the  Christian  spirit 
are  not  only  the  true  but  the  most  commonly  recog- 
nized expression  of  moral  principles. 

A  great  part  of  the  book  consists  of  sermons 
actually  preached.  That  part  of  it  which  consists  of 
essays  or  sermons  unpreached  has  still  something  of 
the  character  of  the  sermon.  I  have  no  wish  to 
assume  the  dogmatic  tone  to  which  the  preacher  is 
supposed  to   be   always   entitled.     In   dealing  with 


VI  PREFACE. 

argumentative  subjects,  it  has  always  seemed  to  me 
that  the  preacher's  prerogative  of  not  being  answered 
is  a  disadvantage.  The  sermon  does  not  allow  of  an 
exhaustive  treatment  of  all  objections.  Difficulties 
of  which  the  preacher  may  be  conscious,  and  the 
answers  to  which  would  enforce  his  point,  have  to  be 
omitted.  As  it  is,  since  he  cannot  challenge  and  deal 
with  objections,  it  remains  for  him  to  aim  at  suggest- 
ing principles  for  the  acceptance  of  conscience.  In 
the  present  case,  therefore,  while  the  sermon  form 
has  enabled  me  to  claim  the  subject  of  which  I 
treated  for  the  authority  of  conscience,  to  which  all 
the  associations  of  a  sermon  appeal,  it  has  left  my 
own  particular  opinions  or  method  of  treatment  to 
stand  for  what  they  are  worth  as  suggestions. 

I  have  not  aimed  at  a  systematic  or  exhaustive 
treatment  of  a  subject,  on  which  I  wish  rather  to 
provoke  discussion  or  reflection.  I  have  made  no 
attempt  to  define  a  doctrinal  or  ecclesiastical  position, 
though  it  may  appear,  from  casual  allusions,  what  are 
the  doctrines  and  the  system  of  life  which  I  conceive 
to  underlie  and  condition  the  true  view  of  social  and 
economic  ethics.     Still  less  have  I  attempted  to  define 


PREFACE.  Vll 

any  exact  philosophical  basis  for  the  views  I  have 
expressed.  There  are  two  branches  even  of  the 
subject  of  Economic  Morals  which  I  have  left  almost 
untouched.  A  separate  book  might  be  written  on 
the  service  done  to  morals  by  modern  economic  life, 
as  e.g.  in  the  development  of  credit.  Separate  treat- 
ment is,  perhaps,  needed  to  prove  in  detail  the  reality 
of  the  moral  factor  in  economics,  as  e.g.  in  modifying 
the  standard  of  comfort. 

Nor,  again,  have  I  here  attempted  to  show  how  the 
Christian  treatment  of  Economic  Morals  is  a  part  of 
the  larger  subject  of  the  social  character  of  Chris- 
tianity and  of  the  social  substance  of  the  Gospel 
teaching.  It  is  not  that  in  the  economic  or  other 
branches  of  Christian  morals  there  is  any  new  truth  to 
be  taught  in  this  direction ;  but  there  are  those  new 
applications  of  old  truth  to  be  made  which  make  truth 
ever  new,  and  which  are  a  part  of  the  intellectual 
duty  of  faith  in  every  age.  It  is  in  the  showing  forth 
of  social  truths,  and  in  the  working  out  of  their  prac- 
tice, that  the  work  of  the  Church  in  this  age  seems 
to  lie,  the  work  in  doing  which  she  may  recover  the 
reality  represented  by  her  national  name  and  posi- 


VIU  PREFACE. 

tion.  And  in  this  direction  Churchmen  may  apply 
afresh  the  principle  which  the  Church  represents,  that 
Christianity  is  a  social  creed,  by  identifying  her  with 
its  social  character. 

Economic  Morals  touch  religion  on  one  side;  they 
touch  politics  on  another  side.  Economics  were  a 
political  subject  once,  because  there  was  a  cry  for  the 
removal  of  political  restraint.  They  seem  likely  to 
become  a  political  subject  once  more,  through  the 
demand  for  legislative  action  to  secure  economic 
results. 

The  point  on  which  I  wish  here  to  dwell  is,  that 
the  moral  consideration  of  economics  is  prior  to  any 
conclusion  on  the  political  question.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  the  principle  maintained  in  this  book,  that  econo- 
mics are  within  the  sphere  of  conscience,  might  be 
made  a  ground  of  argument  either  for  forwarding  or 
for  resisting  the  modern  tendency  towards  State 
interference  in  economic  life.  The  object  I  should 
wish  to  secure  would  be  that  it  should  become  the 
ground  of  argument  on  both  sides.  If  economic  life  is 
to  be  vindicated  from  the  interference  of  law,  it  must 
be  because  it  is  claimed  as  the  sphere  of  conscience. 


PREFACE.  IX 

as  a  matter  with  which  conscience  is  competent  to 
deal,  and  does  deal.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  economics 
are  once  more  to  become  political,  it  is  all-important 
that  legislative  action  should  be  guided  by  moral 
principles,  not  merely  excited  by  palpably  unsatis- 
factory results.  The  moral  basis  is  in  either  case 
essential. 

It  seems  presumptuous  to  make,  and  yet  ungrateful' 
to  omit,  an  acknowledgment  of  a  debt  to  Mr.  Ruskin 
which  is  in  no  way  peculiar  to  myself,  or  limited  to 
this  particular  subject.  No  one  could  approach  the 
subject  of  Economic  Morals  without  being  indebted 
to  his  teaching.  I  have  not  conformed  to  his  con- 
clusions; I  feel  bound  to  say,  nevertheless,  not  how 
much  I  owe  to  him,  for  that  would  be  impossible, 
but,  at  least,  that  I  am  conscious  of  a  debt  which  I 
can  repay  only  with  the  acknowledgment  that  it  is 
due. 

On  economics,  in  the  ordinary  sense,  I  have  found 
Mr.  Marshall's  "  Economics  of  Industry  "  most  useful  to 
myself  personally,  as  well  as  for  purposes  of  teaching. 
I  wish  also  to  acknowledge  my  debt  to  Mr.  Walker 
on  "The  Wages  Question,"  to  Mr.  Cunningham  on 


X  PREFACE. 

"Politics  and  Economics,"  and,  as  will  again  be 
obvious,  to  the  late  Mr.  Toynbee  in  his  "  Lectures  on 
the  Industrial  Revolution." 

Of  the  contents  of  this  work,  the  lecture  on  "  Con- 
science and  Political  Economy,"  which  stands  first, 
was  delivered  in  the  south  transept  of  St.  Mary's 
Cathedral,  Edinburgh,  on  a  week-day  afternoon.  The 
three  following  sermons  were  delivered  as  a  course 
on  Christian  Economics,  at  St.  Mary's,  Glasgow.  The 
sermons  numbered  VIIL,  IX.,  XL,  XIV.,  and  XV. 
were  delivered  at  St.  Paul's  Cathedral,  and  in  various 
churches  in  Edinburgh,  Glasgow,  and  Dundee.  The 
rest  of  the  book  is  made  up  of  essays  approximating 
more  or  less  to  the  form  of  sermons.  The  order  of 
treatment  is  roughly  as  follows — 

I.  The  relation  of  Economic  Morals  to  Political 
Economy,  as  ordinarily  understood. 

IL,  III.,  IV.  The  principles  of  the  three  great  eco- 
nomic processes  of  Production,  Exchange,  and  Distri- 
bution. 

v.,  VI.,  VII.  Principles  concerning  the  three  main 
factors  in  economic  life — Labour,  Management,  and 
Resources. 


PREFACE.  XI 

VIII.,  IX.,  X.  The  end,  the  organ,  and  the  method 
of  economic  life. 

XI.,  XII.,  XIII.  The  three  aspects  in  which  commo- 
dities present  themselves  to  the  individual — as  pos- 
sessed, as  exchanged,  as  enjoyed. 

XIV.,  XV.,  XVI.  Three  points  immediately  con- 
cerning practice — the  dominant  principle,  the  im- 
mediate practicability,  and  the  ideal  of  economic 
duty. 

Where  there  are  allusions  to  the  particular  place 
and  time  of  the  delivery  of  the  words,  I  have 
left  them  as  they  stand;  partty  in  order  to  mark 
that  occasional  character  of  the  treatment  of  a 
great  part  of  the  subject,  on  which  I  have  already 
insisted. 

There  is  one  other  point  on  which  I  wish  to  lay 
stress  in  conclusion.  I  am  prepared  to  be  told  that 
the  view  of  Economic  Morals  which  I  put  forward 
is  an  impracticable  ideal.  If  I  answer  that  this  is 
because  Christian  Economics  are  a  part  of  Christian 
Morals,  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  to  claim 
any  authoritatively  Christian  character  for  my  own 
apprehension   of  moral   principles   in   application   to 


XU  PREFACE. 

Economic  conduct.  I  only  wisli  iny  readers  to  bear 
in  mind  that  Christian  Morals  must  always  speak 
what  will  seem  to  be  the  language  of  paradox,  and 
command  the  accomplishment  of  that  which  "  with 
men  is  impossible." 

Trinity  College,  Glenalmond, 
November,  1887. 


CONTENTS 
I. 

Conscience  and  Political  Economy. 

PAGE 

Contrast  of  mediaeval  and  modern  economic  life  :  absence  of  legal 
restraint  in  the  latter,  which  is  subject  to  the  authority  of 

Political  Economy  and  conscience i 

What  has  conscience,  the  moral  authority,  to  say  of  Political 

Economy,,  the  scientific  authority  ? 6 

Conscience  is  the  authority  **  of  right " 7 

And  it  has  to  say  of  Political  Economy,  that  it  is  not  satisfied  with 
its  results  or  with  its  principles,  e.g.  ( i )  beggars  ;  (2)  buying 

cheap  J  (3)  investments 9 

These  results  are  referred  to  the  "  laws  "  of  Political  Economy  .  12 
Distinction  between  laws  of  obligation  and  laws  of  fact  ....  13 
The  laws  of  Political  Economy  belong  to  the  theoretical  class  .     .       14 

Practical  or  moral  laws  of  economics  there  are  none 16 

The  theoretical  science  supplants  the  moral  theory 17 

Does  not  the  science,  then,  afford  materials  for  moral  theory?  .  18 
No  ;  (i)  because  science  is  abstract,  and  assumes  a  universality  of 
motive  that  does  not  exist ;  (2)  because  the  motive  assumed 
is  at  best  non-moral ;  (3)  because  the  principles  of  economic 
science  are  generalized  from  a  commercial  life  in  which  high 
moral  principle  is  not  dominant J  9 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

PACE 

Historical  Political  Economy  is  no  better  suited  than  scientific 
economics  to  be  the  source  of  moral  principles,  since  it  gives 
the  history  of  the  development,  not  of  the  principles  by  which 
economic  life  ought  to  be  guided,  but  of  the  principles  by 
which  it  is  guided 23 

We  want,  then,  a  Political  Economy  which  shall  be  a  branch  of 

morals  and  define  duties,  and  we  have  not  got  it      ...     .       26 

Conscience  has  overthrown  the  authoritative  morality  of  law,  and 
has  not  supplied  its  place  by  the  systematic  assertion  of  its 
own  authority 29 

And  yet  commercial  life  is  a  field  congenial  to  conscience — a  field 

in  which  vast  moral  forces  are  at  work,  e.g. ,  credit ....       30 

And,  accordingly,  it  must  be  allowed  that  Political  Economy,  as 
it  stands — the  science  which  works  in  this  field — serves  a  real, 
though  a  subordinate  moral  purpose — (i)  as  the  science  of 
the  means  to  moral  ends  ;  (2)  as  affording  a  spectacle  of  the 
moral  government  of  the  world — a  spectacle  of  mingled 
strength  and  weakness,  suffering  and  success,  which  is  itself 
•  the  strongest  appeal  to  conscience  *     .     .    - 35 


11. 

Competition,  the  Law  of  Life. 

The  command  to  live — how  is  it  obeyed  ? 41 

The  main  force  in  economic  life  is  competition 42 

In  what  sense  is  this  commanded  ? 44 

The  desire  to  live  is  a  virtual  command  to  live  ;  an  individual 

desire,  but  bearing  from  first  to  last  a  social  character ...  45 

It  takes  shape  as  (i)  the  command  to  labour 47 

(2)  The   command    to  combine  and   organize   special  forms   of 
organized  life 49 

(3)  The  command  to  help  ;  and  in  this  help  to  excel ; — this  is  the 

positive  aim  of  competition 53 


CONTENTS,  XV 

PAGE 

Hence,  your  work  must  be  true ;  it  must  be  good  ;  it  must  be 

your  best 56 

This  is  the  fulfilment  of  the  command  to  live — to  do  your  best 

for  the  help  of  men 60 

III. 

Justice,  the  Law  of  Exchange. 

The  society  created  to  serve  the  needs  of  life  lives  by  exchange, 

and  so  brings  us  under  the  command  to  be  just 62 

Wider  and  narrower  idea  of  justice 63 

Exchange  calls  conscience  into  play,  in  the  field  which  Political 

Economy  describes,  and  leaves  open  to  conscience       ...  66 

And  conscience  commands  justice,  which  is  (i)  an  interchange  of 

good 7^ 

(2)  According  to  mutual  agreement •     .     .  74 

(3)  Of  conscience,  which  knows  the  mind  of  God 79 

IV. 

Love,  the  Law  of  Distribution. 

The  facts  of  distribution  are,  rich  and  poor  side  by  side ....  82 

In  face  of  these  facts,  we  are  under  the  command  to  love     ...  86 

The  love  commanded  is  a  constructive  principle 87 

Its  law  is  the  law  of  help;  i.e.  (i)  identify  your  neighbour's  in- 
terest with  your  own 89 

(2)  Pursue  it,  if  need  be,  at  the  sacrifice  of  your  own      ....  92 

( 3)  In  so  doing  you  will  find  the  energy  of  love  to  be  the  energy 

of  life 95 

V. 

The  Blessing  of  Labour. 

The  blessing  of  labour  (i)  in  the  full  employment  of  energy    .     .       99 

(2)  In  the  wages  of  life 102 

(3)  In  the  living  energy  of  love 104 


XVI  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Contrast  with  this  ideal  the  unlaborious  life io6 

The  life  that  need  not  labour  cannot  be  blest,  except  by  sharing 

the  blessing  of  labour 107 

VI. 

The  Privilege  of  Monopoly. 

The  typical  case  of  monopoly  is  that  of  the  direction  of  labour      .  112 

The  privilege  is  the  privilege  of  self-dependence 118 

(i)  This  self-dependence  is  a  gift 120 

(2)  It  is  a  reponsibility 124 

(3)  Above  all  it  is  a  privilege 127 

VII. 
The  Produce  of  the  Past. 

In  investments  we  look  for  (i)  security,  (2)  high  interest.     We 

ought  to  look  for  (i)  a  good  object,  (2)  just  interest      .     .     .     132 
(i)  The  reasons  why  you  are  entitled  to  interest  at  all    ....     134 

(2)  Show  that  you  are  bound  to  see  that  the  source  from  which 

you  draw  it  is  good 139 

(3)  And  that  the  return  you  get  for  it  is  such  as  is  justly  your  due     144 

VIII. 
Wealth. 

What  is  the  true,  the  incorruptible  wealth  ? 148 

1.  Money?    This  is  the  type  of  wealth  liable  to  decay,  as  "the 

transience  of  a  condition  of  utility  " 151 

2.  Abundance  of  the  means  of  life  ?     Life  is  liable  to  decay,  as 

"  the  gradual  substitution  of  a  lower  for  a  higher  form  of 
life" 154 

3.  Love.     This  alone  is  not  subject  to  corruption,  except  in  "the 

disappearance  of  the  opportunities  of  love  "  unused  .     .     .     .     157 


CONTENTS.  XVll 

IX. 

The  Economic  Body. 

PAGE 

That  Christian  life  is  corporate  life,  is  the  teaching  of  S.  Paul  .  .  164 
The  Christian  laws  of  corporate  life  apply,  not  only  to  t)ie  social 

life  of  the  Church,  but  to  all  social  relations 167 

Among  others,  to  economic  duties,  viz.,  (i)  The  law  of  mutual 

dependence  between  man  and  man 169 

(2)  The  law  of  dependence  on  God 174 

(3)  The  law  of  mutual  help 176 

X. 

The  Ethics  of  Division  of  Labour. 

A  supposed  omission  in  the  theory  of  division  of  labour  .  .  .  180 
The  division  of  labour  implies  the  combination  of  labourers  and 

the  division  of  functions 182 

1.  Need  is  the  source  of  combination 183 

2.  Division  of  function  is  the  principle  on  which  it  works,  discern- 

ing and  defining  for  the  individual  (a)  power  to  help ;  {b) 
the  life  in  which  it  finds  vent ;  {c)  the  sacrifice  and  the  sub- 
bordination  which  it  demands 186 

3.  Spiritual  union  is  the  issue  towards  which  it  leads      ....     193 

XI. 

Property. 

The  property  of  God  in  the  persons  and  souls  of  men  is  the  type 

of  property  in  things 197 

1.  Property  as  the  result  of  the  creative  power  of  labour      .     .     .     200 

2.  Property  as  the  result  of  gift  from  the  living  or  the  dead, 

whether  directly  or  through  the  process  of  exchange     .     .     .     203 

3.  Property  as  the  result  of  use,  which  is  the  duty  of  possession 

and  its  privilege 208 


xvill  CONTENTS. 

XII. 

"  Give  me  my  Price." 

PAGE 

Value,  the  central  economic  conception,  is  determined  by  cost  of 
production,  effectual  demand,  and  final  utility.     What  is  the 

moral  content  of  these  ideas  ? 213 

1.  Cost  of  production 215 

2.  Effectual  demand 220 

3.  Final  utility 226 

XIII. 
Consumption  of  Wealth. 

The  distinction  between  productive  and  unproductive  labour  is 

better  stated  as  a  distinction  concerning  consumption   .     .     .  228 

Consumption  is  the  beginning  and  the  end  of  economic  life      .     .  228 
What  is  the  moral  rank,  with  respect  to  their  results,  of  different 

kinds  of  consumption  ? 229 

1.  Consumption  of  wealth  in  help 231 

2.  Consumption  of  wealth  in  production 235 

3.  Consumption  of  wealth  in  the  satisfaction  of  personal  desires   .  238 


XIV. 

Competition  and  Co-operation, 

The  economic  aspect  of  the  saintly  chai-acter 242 

1.  Economic  life  is  a  system  of  co-operation 245 

2.  And  yet,  at  the  same  time,  a  system  of  competition    ....  249 

3.  The  ideal  of  saintliness  says,  at  least.  Subordinate  competition 

to  co-operation 251 


CONTENTS.  XIX 

XV. 

The  Practicability  of  the  Principles  of  Right. 

Contrast  of  Christian  principles  and  Christian  practice    .     .     .     .     255 
And  yet  in  practice,  the  organization  of  life,  as  it  is,  necessitates 
service,  and  offers  the  alternative  of  willing  or  reluctant 

service 258 

It  offers,  at  least,  the  occasion  of  unselfish  life 261 

The   occasion   implies    the   obligation,    which    is   personal   and 

absolute 264 

XVI. 
Economic  Freedom. 

Freedom  the  keynote  of  the  economic  ideal 267 

A  positive  freedom,  the  freedom  to  enjoy 268 

(1)  The  freedom  of  energy 269 

(2)  Freedom  of  sympathy 272 

(3)  Freedom  of  enjoyment 275 


TTiriTBESITTl 


I. 

CONSCIENCE   AND    POLITICAL 
ECONOMY. 

If  a  man  who  lived  in   mediseval  times  were  to  be 
brought  back  into  our  world  of  to-day,  few  Contrast  of 

mediaeval 

things  would   surprise   him   more   than  the  and  modem 

*^  •»•  economic 

freedom  of  commerce  and  industry  from  the  oflega^  re"^' 
regulation   of  law.      And   yet,   probably,   it  iatter, 
would  surprise  him  more  to  be  told  that  commerce 
and  industry  were  the  subject  of  a  science. 

It  is  not  easy  to  picture  the  vast  and  radical  change 
whose  evidence  would  confront  him  at  every  turn. 
Into  our  world,  where  prices  and  the  quality  of 
goods  sold  and  bought,  wages  and  the  migration  of 
workmen  from  place  to  place  and  from  trade  to  trade, 
interest  in  money  lent  for  purposes  of  trade,  the 
nations  from  which  we  import,  the  markets  to  which 
we  export,  are  all  matters  left  to  be  settled  between 


2  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

buyer  and  seller,  employer  and  labourer,  merchant 
and  merchant,  man  and  man,  he  would  emerge  with 
the  memory  of  a  world  in  which  no  one  dreamt  of 
regarding  any  of  these  as  other  than  a  proper  subject 
for  the  restraints  of  local  regulation  or  national  law. 
Local  guilds  aimed  at  securing  good  work  and  skilled 
labour,  and  enforced  laws  of  apprenticeship.  Wages 
were  fixed  by  authoritative  custom.  When  great 
social  or  economic  causes,  such  as  the  spread  of  a 
money  system  of  exchange,  the  decay  of  villeinage, 
depopulation  by  plague  or  war,  the  substitution  of 
pasture  for  agriculture,  produced  a  change  of  con- 
ditions, and  weakened  the  efficiency  of  local  restraint, 
Statutes  of  Labourers  and  of  Apprentices  were  passed 
to  check  migration,  and  to  enforce  by  law  the  rules 
which  had  always  obtained  under  a  national  sanction. 
Prices,  again,  were  matter  of  definite  regulation,  and 
an  assize  of  bread  would  fix  the  price  of  the  loaf, 
and  the  proportion  in  which  its  size  might  vary  with 
a  good  or  a  bad  harvest.  Law  distinguished  between 
the  loan  of  money  such  as  made  a  man  a  partner  in 
the  business  which  he  aided  by  his  funds,  and  the 
loan  to  mere  necessity,  interest  on  which  fell  under 
the  definition  of  usury.  Law  allowed  or  encouraged 
trade  with  foreign  nations,  or  towns,  or  commercial 
leagues,  and  fixed  "  staples  " — places  to  which  export 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  3 

was  restricted — in  order  to  concentrate  and  strengthen 
foreign  commerce.^ 

Before  he  asked  what  were  the  principles  which 
governed  our  commercial  and  industrial  life,  our 
mediaeval  visitor  would  stand  amazed,  on  the  first 
view,  at  the  disappearance  bodily  of  this  system  of 
restraint  —  the  only  means  with  which  he  was 
familiar  by  which  any  principles,  political,  moral, 
or  commercial,  could  have  force;  and  a  question 
would  occur  to  his  mind,  as  to  what  were  the 
causes  that  had  produced  such  a  vast  and  universal 
change.  We  should  tell  him  that  the  change  had 
been  a  long  and  gradual  process,  and  that  many 
agencies  had  been  at  work ;  but  if,  through  all  these 
agencies,  we  were  to  name  a  single  force  whose  opera- 
tion gave  unity  to  the  history  of  the  growth  of  free 
commerce  and  free  industry,  we  should  say  that  the 
main  and  constant  agent  was  self-interest.  The 
separate  nations,  whose  antagonism  fills  the  history 
of  the  period  after  the  Reformation,  had  used  the 
traditional  power  of  law  over  commerce  and  industry 
to  promote  their  own  political  interest;  and,  mean- 
while, commercial  and  industrial  life  had  been  grow- 
ing too  strong  for  the  bonds  of  the  old  system,  and, 
at  the  end  of  the  last  century  and  the  beginning  of 
^  Cf.  the  earlier  chapters  of  Cunningham's  "  Politics  and  Economics." 


4  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

this,  the  gathered  force  of  the  individual  interest  of 
traders  and  labourers  had  burst  them  and  cast  them 
aside  once  for  all. 

We  should  naturally  pass  on  to  justify  the  change 
as  a  great  gain  to  commerce  and  the  community. 
We  should  point  out  that,  broadly  speaking,  experience 
had  justified  the  view,  not  only  that  the  general  com- 
fort and  convenience  of  life  was  increased  by  the 
freedom  of  commerce  and  industry  from  restraints 
imposed  by  political  considerations,  but  that,  in  so 
far  as  legal  restraint  had  aimed  at  commercial  pros- 
perity, governments  were  not  as  good  judges  of 
what  tended  to  this  end  as  the  individual  traders 
and  labourers,  left  to  work  out  their  own  aims  by 
any  means  and  in  any  combinations  which  their 
own  choice  and  their  own  interest  defined.  We 
should  point  with  some  pride  to  the  vast  and  world- 
wide system  which  the  forces  of  individual  interest 
have  built  up — the  fabric  of  a  commercial  life,  in 
which  every  individual,  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
plays  his  part  in  contributing  to  the  comfort  and 
prosperity  of  all  the  rest. 

But  while  we  were  drawing  a  more  than  com- 
placent picture  of  our  present  commercial  life,  there 
would  appear,  I  think,  in  the  face  of  our  mediaeval 
friend   an   expression  of  puzzled   interrogation;   and 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  5 

as  soon  as  we  allowed  him  a  pause  in  the  flow 
of  our  eloquent  laudation,  he  would  be  almost  sure 
to  ask,  "  What  in  your  modern  system  has  become 
of  the  purpose  and  spirit  that  underlay  all  our 
legal  restraints  ?  Where  does  right  come  in  ?  Our 
laws  and  regulations,  from  which  you  are  so  glad 
to  have  escaped,  were  intended  to  secure  commercial 
prosperity,  but  they  were  also  intended  to  secure 
justice  and  right.  Very  likely  " — we  will  give  him 
credit  for  humility — ''  they  failed  to  attain  their  pur- 
pose. But  our  way  of  looking  at  the  matter  was, 
that  man  had  to  live  by  the  Divine  law  which  spoke 
in  the  enlightened  conscience  and  through  the  lips 
of  human  law.  And  king,  and  Church,  and  all  our 
authorities,  and  all  their  restraints  gained  respect, 
and  were  allowed,  for  commercial  purposes,  to  regulate 
the  rights  of  men,  on  the  ground  that  they  were  the 
agents  of  the  law  of  God  in  the  governance  of  human 
life.  They  were  supposed  and  intended  to  fix  fair 
prices  and  just  wages — in  fact,  to  enforce  what  was 
right.  You  say  it  was  a  mistake  to  enforce  it. 
Granted.  But  you  do,  no  doubt,  believe  in  the 
governance  of  human  life  by  the  Divine  law,  only 
I  don't  exactly  see  where  it  comes  in  in  your 
system." 

At  this  point  it  becomes  a  little  difficult   to  say 


6  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

how  we  should  continue  the  discussion.  There  are 
which  is  sub-  two  authorities,  either   of  which   might  be 

ject  to  the  ° 

PoiiticaiEco-  P^^  forward  as  the  substitute  for  human 
coSence.  law,  as  the  mouthpiece  of  the  Divine  Will 
and  the  exponent  of  the  Divine  Mind.  We  might  say, 
"  Well,  the  fact  is,  we  have  learnt  to  look  at  the  whole 
mass  of  commercial  and  industrial  life  as  the  subject 
of  a  science,  and  we  consider  that  the  laws  of  Political 
Economy  are  the  expression  of  God's  Will  in  this 
region,  just  as  the  laws  of  astronomy,  in  so  far  as 
we  know  them,  or  the  laws  of  meteorology,  if  we 
could  discover  them,  are  the  expression  of  the  Divine 
Will  within  the  range  of  those  sciences."  Meanwhile, 
we  should  probably  add,  "  Conscience  is,  to  our  mind, 
a  far  more  effective  agent  of  the  Divine  Will  and 
Mind  than  any  legislative  enactment,  and  conscience, 
of  course,  is  operative  in  the  region  of  which  we  are 
now  speaking."  In  the  perplexity  of  an  endeavour  to 
reconcile  these  two  apparently  discordant  answers,  we 
must,  I  think,  leave  our  inquiring  ancestor.  There 
is  no  doubt  which  of  these  two  authorities  would 
What  has      be   most   to    his   mind,    and   we   shall   turn 

conscience, 

lilhTity,  to  ^^  ^®^^  account  any  light  which  his  cri- 
SrEcononiyi  ticism  may  throw  on  our  modern  commer- 

the  scientific 

authority?  cial  life,  if  we  ask.  What  has  conscience, 
the  authority  de  jure — the  authority  which  he  would 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  7 

prefer — to  say  to  the  rule  exercised  by  the  authority 
de  facto,  the  authority  usually  accepted  —  Political 
Economy  ? 

I  have  called  conscience  the  authority  de  jure.     Let 
me  first — not  iustify,  for  it  is  above  iustifi- 

•^  "^  '^  Conscience 

cation — but  emphasize  and  define  this  au-  j.^'^ f. ^f"^"" 
thority.  It  is  above  justification  ;  it  is  not  "^^^' 
beyond  analysis.  We  may  trace  the  history  of  the 
conscience  of  to-day ;  we  may  tabulate  its  dicta ;  we 
may  examine  the  nature  and  sanction  of  its  command  ; 
we  may  hear  through  its  lips  the  ring  of  a  Diviner 
voice.  But  its  authority  is  absolute  and  complete.  Ifc 
cannot  be  described  in  any  terms  which  are  not  tinged 
with  some  theory  of  its  nature  or  of  its  purpose ;  but 
the  authority  itself  is  a  fact,  one  of  those  facts  which 
theories  and  philosophies  only  exist  to  describe  and 
to  explain.  In  the  nature  of  man  there  is,  in  the 
history  and  development  of  man  there  has  grown  up, 
this  authoritative  principle — call  it  by  what  name 
you  will — which  says  to  every  man,  and  in  every 
man,  as  to  all  that  he  does  or  leaves  undone,  You 
ought,  or,  You  ought  not.  For  these  commands  con- 
science neither  offers  nor  needs  any  authority  but  its 
own.  That  is  its  claim  :  a  claim  which  carries  it 
in  its  own  sheer  right  to  the  defiance  of  any  con- 
sequence, of  any  actual  power,  to  death  itself,  and 


8  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

dignifies  resistance,  even  where,  in  the  individual, 
conscience  is  unenlightened  and  misled,  with  the 
inalienable  character  of  martyrdom  itself.  It  needs 
enlightenment ;  but  enlightenment  is  the  guidance, 
not  the  source,  of  its  authority.  Its  authority  is  in 
itself  It  does  not  calculate  consequences  with  a 
view  to  any  end  but  its  own,  and  that  end  is  "good," 
of  which  it  claims  to  be,  in  every  single  human  life, 
the  authoritative  judge.  It  is  the  power  to  see  and 
say  what  is  good  with  authority. 

And  to  this  authority  there  are  no  limits  but 
such  as  conscience  itself  imposes  on  itself.  Through- 
out the  whole  range  of  the  life  of  man,  wherever 
there  is  anything  for  a  man  to  do  or  to  leave 
undone,  conscience  is  supreme.  Conscience  in  one 
man  holds  intercourse  witli  conscience  in  another. 
It  is  a  social  faculty.  Conscience  and  conscience 
blend  in  collective  utterance.  In  this  social  and  col- 
lective life,  it  acknowledges  a  spiritual  dependence 
and  claims  spiritual  kinship.  In  this'  it  is  open 
to  enlightenment  in  its  own  kind  and  on  its  own 
ground.  But  its  authority  remains  ultimate  and 
unimpaired.  It  may  say  in  any  man.  You  ought 
to  do  what  others  tell  you,  and  what  others  think 
you  ought ;  but  even  here  the  "  ought "  is  its  own.  In 
this  spiritual  and  social  life  it  grows  and  develops ;  it 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  9 

unlearns  moral  mistakes  and  rises  to  higher  moral 
levels.  But  its  own  vision  and  authority  sanction  its 
condemnation  and  warrant  its  advance.  It  depends 
on  reason  and  experience  for  enlightenment  on 
matters  of  fact  or  speculative  truth;  but  neither 
fact  nor  theory  can  usurp  its  unique  prerogative  of 
command.  Science  and  philosophy  enlarge  and  lay 
open  a  wider  field  for  the  exercise  of  an  authority 
which  they  can  never  reinforce,  and  can  certainly 
never  circumscribe.  To  one  authority  only  in  its 
own  kind  does  it  bow.  Rather,  by  its  own  act  and 
effort,  it  passes  up  into,  and  fuses  itself  with  the 
imperious  dictate  of  love. 

It  is  before  the  bar  of  this  authority  that  we  have 
to  summon  whatever  claims  to  direct  a  man  ^^^  j^  ^^^ 
what  he  is  to  do  in  any  part  of  his  life.     And  poimcaf 

■      -Tki..       iT-i  Economy, 

SO,  m  view  of  the  fact  that  Political  Economy  that  it  is  iiot 

satisfied  with 

does,  in  some  sense  or  other,  claim  to  govern  "^  Sits 
men's  actions  in  one  particular  region — namely,  ^"""^  ^^' 
in  the  efforts  by  which  we  produce  wealth,  in  the 
actions  by  which  we  exchange  it,  and  in  the  joint 
operation  of  these  two  in  bringing  about  its  distribu- 
tion — I  ask,  what  has  conscience  to  say  of  Political 
Economy  ?  We  have  to  appeal — for  reasons  on  which 
I  shall  have  something  to  say — in  the  conscience  of 
the   ordinary  man,  to  a   conscience   not  very  highly 


lo  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

enlightened  in  its  own  kind,  and  very  often  not 
enlightened  at  all  as  to  matters  of  fact.  But  to  the 
conscience  of  the  ordinary  man  Political  Economy  has 
to  commend  itself,  if  it  is  to  govern  his  actions.  Does 
it  commend  itself  to  the  conscience  of  the  ordinary 
man  ?  If  not,  even  the  inarticulate  murmurs  and  un- 
instructed  protests  of  conscience  must  be  either  con- 
strued into  explicit  fallacies,  or  else  obeyed,  unless  we 
would  tamper  with  the  effectual  power  of  conscience 
itself.  And  the  conscience  of  the  ordinary  man,  I 
think,  broadly  has  to  say,  if  it  could  speak,  that  if, 
and  in  so  far  as,  Political  Economy  governs  the  life 
of  men  in  this  region,  conscience  is  not  satisfied  with 
the  results;  and  further,  that  it  does  not  acquiesce 
in  the  principles  to  which  these  results  are  ascribed. 
They  do  not  speak  the  language  of  conscience ;  they 
have  nothing  to  do  with  "  you  ought ; "  they  are  not 
really  intelligible  to  conscience  at  all. 

A  few  instances  will  bring  out  the  antagonism  of 
which  I  speak. 

Take,  first,  the  most  obvious  instance — the  beggar. 
e.g.  (0  beg-  May  I  in  this  case  give  an  example  from  my 
buying         own  experience  ?     Glenalmond  lies,  it  miojht 

cheap ;  (3)  in-  ^ 

vestments.  \^^  thought,  far  away  from  the  difiiculties  and 
problems  of  modern  social  life.  And  yet  I  remember, 
when  I  first  went  to  Glenalmond,  being  surprised  to 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  ii 

find  that,  for  beggars,  Glenalmond  lay  on  the  road  from 
almost  anywhere  to  almost  anywhere  else.  The  reason 
I  soon  found  to  be  that  the  College  had  a  tolerably 
wide-open  back  door,  which  made  it  quite  well  worth 
the  while  of  a  tramp  to  come  a  good  many  miles  out  of 
his  way.  Well,  of  late  years  the  back  door  has  been — 
not  altogether  closed — but  it  is  a  good  deal  less 
wide-open  than  it  used  to  be,  and,  consequently,  if 
the  beggar  came  now,  he  generally  found  his  way  to  the 
Warden's  house.  I  need  not  describe  how  I  myself 
dealt  with  the  practical  difficulty  in  individual  cases. 
But  the  result,  I  may  say,  was,  that  though  the 
beggar  did  not  receive  any  undue  encouragement,  he 
still  came.  About  a  year  ago  I  found  out  that  five 
miles  further  on,  on  the  roundabout  road  from  Perth 
to  Crieff*  which  is  the  beggar's  route,  lay  a  farmhouse 
where  the  farmer  had  long  made  it  a  settled  practice 
to  give  to  any  beggar  who  came  a  shake-down  in  a 
barn  for  one  night,  and  a  simple  supper  and  breakfast. 
Comparing  the  Glenalmond  back  door,  now  closed  all 
but  a  narrow  chink,  with  the  farmer's  barn,  I  must 
confess  that  my  own  conscience  did  not  feel  altogether 
at  ease.  And  the  contrast  is,  I  think,  an  example  of 
what  many  people  feel  on  this  question,  whatever  they 
may  do.     They  feel  drawn  different  ways. 

Take  another  instance.     Supposing  that  I  leave  the 


12  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

wilds  of  Glenalmond,  and  come  up  for  a  day's  shopping 
in  Edinburgh,  or  pay  a  visit  to  London.  With  a 
pardonable  desire  to  make  the  most  of  my  resources, 
I  make  for  the  cheapest  shops.  But  if  I  do  so,  what 
has  conscience  to  say  ?  Suppose  I  am  buying  furniture. 
I  do  not  know  what  happens  in  Edinburgh,  but  I 
know  of  a  part  of  London  where  men  live  who  are 
employed  by  one  of  the  great  dealers  in  furniture, 
where,  under  pressure,  men  are  employed  to  work 
twenty-four  hours  on  end;  and  I  suppose  every  one 
knows  that  overwork  and  underpay  are  regular  inci- 
dents in  the  production  of  cheap  wares. 

Take  another  instance.  In  a  city  like  this  there  are 
a  very  large  number  of  people  who  live  on  the  interes-t 
of  money  invested.  Invested  in  what  ?  In  what  pays 
the  best  interest  and  gives  the  best  security.  But  what 
are  we  paid  for  ?  For  helping  to  do  what  ?  Do  we 
ever  ask  ?  Do  we  think  it  to  be  our  duty  to  care  ? 
Political  Economy  does  not  say  that  it  is.  Does  con- 
science acquiesce  ?    I  think  not. 

In  these  and  other  instances,  which  might,  I  think. 
These  re-      be  multiplied,  conscience   surely  has   to   say 

suits  are  re-  ■*■  ,j  %i 

"Ews'-Vf''^  that  it  is  not  satisfied  with  the  results  of 
Economy,  wliat  profcsscs  to  bc  the  ruling  system.  It 
is  driven,  then,  to  challenge  the  existing  system  on 
principle,  and  to  ask,  "  What  are  its  laws  ?  "     And  the 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  13 

answer  is,  "All  these  things  are  subject  to  the  laws  of 
Political  Economy." 

Here,   at    the    first    mention    of   the  word  "  law," 
we  must  make  a  distinction.     "Law"  is  an  Distinction 
ambiguous  word.     We  must  distinguish  be-  lawsofobii- 

gation  and 

tween  laws  of  obligation  and  laws  of  fact,  'awsoffact. 
between  laws  of  conscience  and  laws  of  reason  and 
observation.  The  former  state  what,  under  certain 
conditions,  always  ought  to  be  done ;  the  latter,  what, 
under  certain  conditions,  will  always  occur.  The  former, 
the  laws  of  obligation,  issue  from  conscience,  and  can 
claim  its  authority.  The  word  "law"  is  applied  in  this 
sense  to  legislative  enactments.  These  are  the  expres- 
sion of  the  conscience  of  the  community.  They  are 
in  the  main  limited  to  the  authoritative  expression  of 
principles  which  can,  and,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
community,  had  better  be  enforced  by  punishment. 
In  a  weaker  sense  the  name  is  applied  to  those  decla- 
rations of  principle  as  to  the  duties  of  nations  and 
communities  one  to  another,  in  whose  support  the 
general  sense  of  the  world  and  the  agreement  of 
nations  sanction  the  use  of  force.  It  is  applied,  again, 
to  those  very  numerous  laws  which  are  enforced  by 
the  sanctions  of  public  opinion,  by  the  loss  of  public 
praise,  and  the  visitation  of  public  blame.  And,  more 
widely  still,  it  is  applied  to  recognized  moral  principles 


14  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

which  have  no  other  sanction  than  the  condemnation 
of  conscience  itself.  But  all  of  these  agree  in  two 
points.  They  have  their  source  in  conscience,  and 
they  speak  the  language  of  obligation.  They  say, 
This  3^ou  ought,  or  ought  not  to  do. 

Laws  of  fact  are  quite  different  from  these.  They 
issue  from  the  theoretical  faculties,  from  reason  and 
observation;  they  state  what  is,  not  what  ought  to 
be.  The  law  that  two  straight  lines  cannot  enclose  a 
space  is  a  theoretical  law.  It  may  become  indirectly 
concerned  in  a  moral  problem.  If,  being  at  one  end 
of  Princes  Street,  you  ought  to  get  to  the  other  as 
quickly  as  possible,  then  you  ought  not  to  walk  round 
the  Castle.  But  the  obligation  arises  not  from  the 
rational  law  that  two  straight  lines  cannot  enclose  a 
space,  or  from  the  observation  that  Princes  Street  is 
a  straight  line,  but  from  the  duty  which  calls  you  to 
the  other  end  of  it,  whatever  it  may  be.  And  the 
obligation  to  this  duty  has  its  origin  in  conscience. 

To  which  of  these  classes  do  the  laws  of  Political 
The  laws  of  Economy  belong  ?  The  question  is  not  quite 
beiong"!othe  bcyond  dispute.  The  authorities  are  very 
ciaS!^  ^'^^  much  in  favour  of  the  view  that  the  laws  of 
Political  Economy  are  laws  of  fact,  not  laws  of  obliga- 
tion. Let  us  in  any  case  be  clear  at  once  that  this  is 
the  only  claim  which,  on  the  part  of  conscience,  we 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  15 

can  allow.  Political  Economy  is,  on  the  face  of  it,  a 
theoretical  science  dealing  with  human  actions.  It 
assumes  certain  principles  as  to  how  men  will  act 
under  given  conditions.  Observation,  or  anticipated 
observation,  supplies  the  conditions,  and  the  science 
reasons  out  the  actual  or  expected  results.  The 
conclusions  take  the  shape,  Given  such  and  such 
conditions,  this  is  what  men  will,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
do.  Take,  for  instance,  the  theory  as  to  the  increase 
of  population  with  the  means  of  subsistence  asso- 
ciated with  the  name  of  Malthus.  The  theory  was 
that,  given  the  then  present  moral  nature  of  men, 
population  would  keep  pace  with  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence at  a  low  standard  of  comfort.  The  theory 
was  not  scientific  at  all,  except  on  the  assumption 
that  men  will  multiply  as  fast  as  the  means  of  sub- 
sistence will  allow  them.  The  conclusions  drawn 
from  this  were,  that  rise  of  wages  will  not  better 
the  condition  of  the  working  classes,  and  that  com- 
mercial prosperity  tends  only  to  the  indefinite 
multiplication  of  a  more  or  less  miserable  and  de- 
graded population.  This  is  a  theoretical  conclusion  ; 
it  states  a  more  or  less  probable  rule  of  fact.  And 
this  is  the  character  that  properly  and  strictly 
belongs  to  all  the  conclusions  of  Economical  Science. 
Wherever,  then,  we  are  reproached  with  desiring  to 


i6  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

break  economic  laws,  the  words  used  are  themselves 
absurd.  If  they  are  laws,  we  cannot  break  them ;  we 
can  counteract  them  or  defy  them,  and  be  justified  in 
doing  so  or  not,  according  to  the  probability  of  success 
or  failure,  and  the  moral  value  of  the  motive  which 
induces  us  to  make  the  attempt. 

But  if  the  laws  of  Political  Economy  are  not  laws  of 
Practical  or  obligation  in  the  field  of  economic  action 
of  economics  whcrc   arc   these   laws  of  obligation   to  be 

there  are 

none.  found  ?     Surcly  they  ought  to  exist.     Surely, 

there  ought  to  be  a  substantive  body  of  moral  principles 
dealing  with  economic  duty.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
I  believe  it  is  broadly  true  to  say  they  do  not  exist. 
In  the  history  of  morals,  practice  generally  comes 
first,  and  theory  follows  in  its  train.  There  are  moral 
problems  enough  in  the  region  of  economic  practice, 
in  the  matter  of  daily  duties,  and  the  common  econo- 
mic relations  of  man  to  man.  But  they  are  unsolved 
in  theory  and  practice  alike.  The  theoretical  science 
holds  the  field,  and  principles  of  duty  as  to  our 
economic  relations  exist,  neither  embodied  in  a  sub- 
stantial and  systematic  shape,  nor  yet  afloat  in  the 
common  consciousness  and  practice  of  men. 

And  this  is  not  a  very  unnatural  result.  The 
theoretical  science  holds  the  field.  And  since  it  is 
a  science  which,  though  theoretical,  deals  with  matters 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  17 

of  practice,  it  is  inevitably  converted  into  a  practical 

science.      If  I   were  suddenly  to  introduce,  The  theore- 
tical science 

as  an  illustration  in  this  lecture,  reasoning  supplants 

^    the  moral 

which  would  prove  —  merely  theoretically  '^^°''y- 
—  that,  supposing  those  principles  to  have  been 
observed  in  the  construction  of  the  roof  over  our 
heads,  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  are  known  to  have 
been  observed,  the  roof  would  inevitably  fall  in  in 
a  quarter  of  an  hour,  the  obligation  under  which 
I  stand  to  deliver  a  lecture  might  keep  me  where  I 
am ;  but  I  should  be  very  much  surprised  if  any 
assurances  I  were  to  give,  that  my  reasoniDg  was 
purely  theoretical,  availed  to  preserve  for  me  an 
audience  to  listen  to  the  rest  of  the  argument  I  wished 
to  illustrate.  You  cannot  make  statements  as  to  the 
probable  results  of  a  given  course  of  action  without 
practically  affecting  the  question  whether  men  shall 
take  that  course  of  action  or  not.  If  some  law  of 
obligation  were  present  to  your  consciousness  or  mine, 
conscience  might  prevail,  and  we  might  stop  where 
we  are.  In  a  crowded  theatre,  for  instance,  a  brave 
man  would  face  the  real  danger  of  fire  to  himself, 
rather  than  increase  the  greater  danger  to  the 
audience  of  a  hurried  rush  to  the  doors.  But  if 
the  moral  obligation  is  not  there  to  counteract  the 
statement  of  probable  fact,  the  indicative  is  very  soon 

0 


i8  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

changed  into  the  imperative  mood,  and  "I  shall 
probably  be  killed  "  is  transformed  into  "  I  had  better 
run  away." 

And  in  economic  matters  the  moral  obligation  is 
not  present.  In  the  last  hundred  years  there  has 
been  a  vast  increase  of  commercial  and  industrial  life. 
The  field  of  action  has  enlarged  beyond  all  imagina- 
tion. The  conditions  with  which  we  have  to  deal  are 
intricate  and  complicated  to  the  last  degree.  Science, 
which  tells  you  what  will  probably  happen,  has  kept 
pace  with  the  change.  Moral  theory,  which  tells  you 
what  you  ought  to  do,  has  not. 

But  if  science  is  so  readily  translated  into  practice, 
Does  not       is    not    the    distinction    iraa^ijinary  ?      Con- 

the  science,  " 

maTeriah"for  scicncc  is  always  at  hand  to  translate  science 
iheo%?  into  morals.  Is  not  the  end  attained  ?  This 
argument  we  must,  I  am  afraid,  consider  at  some 
leno-th.  There  is  no  formulated  claim  of  Political 
Economy,  as  it  stands,  to  be  the  indirect  source  of 
moral  principles;  but  what  actually  takes  place  is 
that  the  generalizations  of  the  science  are  made  to  do 
duty  for  moral  principles,  and  the  general  impression 
is  that  the  moral  end  is  attained.  Is  the  end 
attained  ?  It  is  attained  if  the  science  is  such  as  to 
answer  the  purposes  of  conscience ;  but  this  is  not  so, 
for  three  reasons. 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY,  19 

In  the  first  place,  Political  Economy  proper  is  a 
strictly  abstract   science.      Action   is   never  ^^ , , .  ^^ 
abstract.     Political  Economy  reasons  out  the  iJaSSar 

,       .  -,  .        a'^d  assumes 

probable   or   certain  conclusions   or    certain  a  univer- 
sality of 

hypotheses,  or  supposed  laws  of  human  action.  5'o°es''not'^^' 
It  supposes  the  uniform  action  of  a  certain  ^'"^  ' 
dominant  motive.  This  motive,  or  any  motive,  may  be 
dominant,  but  no  motive  is  universal.  It  is  modified 
in  action,  and  it  may  be  modified  still  more,  by  other 
motives,  which,  for  instance,  it  may  be  the  business  of 
conscience  to  bring  into  play.  In  any  case,  a  science 
which  professedly  assumes  the  universality  and 
uniformity  of  a  motive,  which  is  neither  universal  nor 
uniform,  is  not  a  science  whose  conclusions  are  fit  to 
be  translated  straight  into  practice.  It  may  or  may 
not  be  broadly  true  that  population  increases  in  pro- 
portion to  the  means  of  subsistence ;  but  it  does  not 
necessarily  follow  in  any  particular  instance,  that  if 
you  give  a  certain  man,  or  body  of  men,  increased 
means  of  subsistence,  the  only  result  will  be  a  multi- 
plication of  paupers.  This  is  a  theoretical  weakness 
arising  from  the  nature  of  the  science  itself,  from  that 
very  abstract  character  which  gives  force  and  cogency 
to  its  theoretical  conclusions. 

But  we  must  look,  in  the  second  place,  at  the  nature 
of  the    principles  assumed.      What    is    the    general 


20  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

character  of  the  principles  assumed  ?     What  are  the 
(2)  because    Hiotives  Under  which,  for  the  purposes  of  the 

the  motive  .  .      , 

assumed  is     scicncc,  it  IS  assumcd  that  men  will  generally 

at  best  non- 

"'°''^' '  act  ?  Political  Economy  creates  an  imaginary 
world.  The  economic  man  rarely  exists  in  full  perfec- 
tion, in  fact.  But,  apart  from  this,  what  is  the  character 
of  the  economic  man  ?  He  is  a  man  who  is  invariably 
guided  by  what  he  sees  to  be  his  interest.  Such  a 
man  may  be  a  very  useful  member  of  society.  He 
may  be  guided  by  the  light  of  self-interest,  of  the 
most  or  of  the  least  enlightened  kind,  to  live  the  life 
which  will  make  him  contribute  most  to  the  good  of 
his  fellows.  But  the  conclusions  of  a  science  which 
assumes  as  universal,  action  governed  by  such  a 
motive,  cannot,  by  any  alchemy  of  conscience,  be 
transmuted  into  moral  principles  which  ought  to  be 
obeyed.  Conscience  knows,  in  any  set  of  circum- 
stances, two  motives — the  right  and  the  wrong;  it 
knows  no  indifferent  or  intermediate  class.  Political 
Economy  does  not  assume  immoral  action  as  the  rule ; 
it  is  indifferent.  In  the  eye  of  the  science,  all  action 
is  non-moral ;  right  and  wrong  has  nothing  to  do  with 
it ;  it  assumes  action  whose  motive  is  an  enlightened 
view  of  expediency.  From  a  science  whose  language 
is,  *'  Men  who  pursue  their  own  interest  will  act  in  such 
and  such  a  way,"  we  can  draw  no  conclusions  of  the 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  21 

form,  "Therefore  I  ought  to  act  in  this  way,  or  in 
that."  In  the  second  place,  then,  the  theoretical  con- 
clusions of  Political  Economy  are  not  fit  to  be  trans- 
lated at  once  into  moral  principles,  because  the  motive 
under  which  Political  Economy  assumes  that  men 
habitually  act  is  at  best  a  non-moral  motive.  Con- 
science, in  fact,  would  unhesitatingly  condemn  the 
life  of  a  man  who  was  uniformly  guided  by  however 
enlightened  a  view  of  his  own  interest. 

But  there  is  a  third  consideration  affecting  the  fit- 
ness of  the  conclusions  of  Political  Economy  (3)  because 

the  prin- 

to     be    translated    into     moral     principles.  eJ-P^omfc 
Political  Economy  rests  on  assumptions  as  to  generalized 

.  T  .  from  a  com- 

the  motives  uniformly  governing  the  actions  merciai  ufe 
of  men,  not  in  all  the  world  and  all  ages,  pifn^cipre'tl 

,       ,    .  1     •         ^  /»  •    1  1     •  not  domi- 

but  m  a  certain  lorm  or  commercial  and  m-  nant. 
industrial  society,  existing  at  the  present  time  among 
nations  of  a  given  degree  of  advancement  in  civiliza- 
tion. It  assumes,  for  instance,  the  readiness  of  men 
to  transfer  their  capital  or  their  labour  from  one 
employment  to  another  at  the  bidding  of  their 
interest;  it  assumes  a  general  power  of  seeing  what 
their  interest  is.  How  far  these  assumptions  are 
universally  true  of  the  region  within  which  they 
are  supposed  to  hold,  if  Political  Economy  is  to  have 
any  immediate  practical  bearing  at  all,  we  need  not 


22  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

ask.  It  is  enough  to  see  that  the  whole  science,  as 
it  stands,  is  an  analysis,  not  of  the  commercial  and 
industrial  life  of  man,  but  of  the  commercial  and  in- 
dustrial of  our  own  time  and  civilization.  Its  assump- 
tions, therefore,  as  to  the  motives  on  which  men 
habitually  act,  will  reflect  the  actual  character  of  the 
motives  under  which  men  have  acted  and  do  act,  in  the 
course  of  the  growth  and  expansion  of  our  modern 
commercial  system.  And  it  is,  unfortunately,  the 
historical  fact  that  the  birth  of  this  system  was  in 
days  when  religious  and  moral  principles  were  barely 
strong  enough  in  the  world  to  animate  the  existing 
fabric  of  society,  far  less  to  keep  pace  with  and 
inform  this  new  and  rapid  growth.  And  while  there 
has  been  a  very  notable  development  of  religious  and 
moral  vitality  since  the  days  when  enthusiasm  was  a 
term  of  reproach,  it  will,  I  think,  scarcely  be  denied 
that  the  religious  and  moral  growth,  and  the  com- 
mercial and  industrial  growth,  while  they  have  coin- 
cided in  time  and  place,  have  not  interpenetrated  one 
another  or  flowed  into  a  single  stream.  Broadly,  I 
suppose  it  will  be  allowed  that  a  weakness  of  our 
religious  movements  has  been  that  they  are  not  in 
touch  with  the  conditions  and  difiiculties  of  modern 
society,  and  that  while,  as  I  shall  have  occasion  to 
observe,  the   commercial  and  industrial  fabric  is,  in 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  23 

its  main  structure,  a  moral  organization,  it  is  not  per- 
vaded in  the  mass  by  any  high  spirit  of  religious 
devotion  or  stern  morality.  So  that,  in  the  actual 
character  of  the  source  from  which  the  assumptions 
of  economic  science  as  to  the  dominant  motives  of 
men  are  drawn  and  derived,  there  is  fresh  reason  why 
Ave  should  not  consider  its  conclusions  available  for 
moral  guidance.  They  are  generalizations  as  to  the 
motives  current  in  a  society  not  pervaded,  we  have 
good  reason  to  believe,  by  a  tone  which  will  har- 
monize with  the  voice  of  that  moral  faculty  which 
is  required  to  adopt  them  as  its  own. 

But,  in  making  this  last  criticism,  we  have  already 
taken  some  steps  along  the  road  which  leads  j^jgjQj.;^^^ 
to  a  Political  Economy  professedly  proceed-  Iconomy  is 
ing   on  a   different   method.      It    has   been  suited  than 

*■  scientific 

allowed,    and    indeed    maintained    of    late  tJ^bTthe^ 
years,  by  a  school  of  Political  Economists,  morafprin- 

ciples, 

that  a  science  whose  principles  are  drawn 
from  the  limited  field  of  our  present  economic  life 
can  never  justly  claim  any  universal  or  cogent  force 
for  its  laws.  Its  place  should  be  taken,  it  is  said, 
by  an  Economic  Science  which  is  historical  in  method, 
which  traces  the  growth  of  economic  life,  and  com- 
pares the  economic  practices  and  principles  of  one 
age  with  those   of  another.     And  such  a   historical 


24  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

Political  Economy,  it  is  further  said,  will  not  aim  at 
any  such  isolation  of  the  purely  economic  motive, 
of  the  motive  of  self-interest,  as  can  never  lead  to 
results  corresponding  with  the  facts,  but  will  view 
the  economic  life  of  this  or  any  other  age  in  its  true 
and  actual  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  political  and 
social  life  of  man,  of  which  it  always  forms  a  part, 
and  with  which  it  is  inextricably  intertwined.  With 
the  merits  of  the  controversy  between  the  tw^o  schools 
of  abstract  and  historical  Political  Economy,  we  are 
not  in  our  present  argument  concerned.  The  only 
question  we  have  to  ask  is  whether  historical  Political 
Economy  is  any  better  fitted  than  the  more  abstract 
science  to  furnish  conscience  with  conclusions  which 
may  be  readily  translated  from  a  theoretical  into  a 
practical  form,  and  may  take  their  place  as  moral 
principles  or  commands.  And  the  answer  to  this 
question  is,  that  historical  Political  Economy  will 
answer  this  purpose  under  exactly  the  same  con- 
ditions as  any  other  branch  of  historical  science, 
under  the  same  conditions  as  history  itself  History 
teems  with  moral  lessons  of  the  widest  and  the  deepest 
kind;  history  may  serve  the  highest  moral  purpose, 
if  it  is  written  and  read  as  the  history  of  the  estab- 
lishment of  moral  principles,  and  of  the  achievement 
of  moral  ends.    Historical  inquiry,  though  it  appears  to 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  25 

begin  at  the  beginning,  always,  in  fact,  begins  at  the 
end.  It  is  the  history  of  this  or  that  institution,  or 
of  its  fall.  It  asks  and  answers  the  question — What 
has  produced  the  given  result  ?  What  forces  have 
built  up  the  institution  ?  What  causes  have  brought 
about  its  decay  ?  It  begins  with  ilds  end  of  the 
clue,  and  traces  its  way  back  to  what,  in  the  writing 
and  the  reading  of  the  story,  appears  as  the  beginning. 
Historical  Political  Economy  is  a  systematic  view 
of  the  history — of  what  ?     We  come  back  to  since  it 

gives  the 

our  old  distinction.     Is  it  a  history  of  the  JjJ°J^y°[o  ] 

development   of  the  principles   of  right  in  Se"prind-°^ 

commercial    and   industrial  life,  or   is    it   a  which  econo- 
mic life 

history  only  of  the  progressively  successful  °"fdeV°but 
means   by   which    men    and    nations    have  dpie^by" 

which  it  is 

sought  wealth,  and  have  achieved  the  wealth  guided. 
which  they  sought  ?  If  it  is  only  the  latter,  it  will 
not  serve  the  purpose  of  conscience  ;  it  will  not  tell 
us  what  we  ought  to  do ;  it  will  only  tell  us  how  to 
do  what  we  want,  provided  that  what  we  want  is  to 
pursue  our  own  interest,  as  men  have  generally,  and 
with  progressive  wisdom,  more  wisely  and  cunningly 
pursued  it.  If,  I  say,  it  is  the  latter — if  it  is  a  his- 
tory of  the  development  of  enlightened  self-interest,  it 
will  not  answer  our  purpose.  Can  it  be  the  former  ? 
Can  it  be  a  history  of  the  progressive  or  of  the  flue- 


26  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

tuating  growth  of  moral  principles  in  economic  life, 

unless  it  starts  with  a  firm  hold  on  this  end  of  the 

clue,  with  a  clear  view  of  what   our  duties  are,  of 

what  we  ought  to  do  in  commercial  and  industrial 

concerns  ?     Surely  not. 

We  are  left,  then,  with  the  conclusion  that  there 

We  want,  is  a  waut  wliicli  no  Economic  Science  satis- 
then,  a  Poli-   ^  ,  ,  ,     .      . 

ticai  Econo-   fies,  althouo'h  it  is  a  want  which,  as  we  have 

my  which  " 

branch^of  sceu,  the  verj  existence  and  richness  of 
define  duties.  Ecouomic  Sclcncc  tends  to  conceal.    We  want 

and  we  have 

not  got  it.  a  Political  Economy  as  a  branch  of  morals — 
a  systematic  view  of  economic  duties,  of  how  men 
ought  to  behave  to  one  another  in  the  complex 
relations  of  modern  commercial  and  industrial  life. 
In  the  society  to  which  I  ventured  to  direct  attention 
at  the  beginning  of  this  lecture,  the  Church  exercised 
an  authority  not  only  so  powerful,  but  so  pervading 
that  religious  and  moral  influences  were  always  in  con- 
tact with  every  part  of  life,  and  were  able,  as  a  matter 
of  right — however  successfully  or  unsuccessfully  in 
fact — to  guide  and  control  a  commercial  and  industrial 
life  immeasurably  less  complex  than  ours.  The  loss 
of  this  official  influence  of  morality  and  religion  has 
been  felt,  and  has  been  supplied  in  very  difierent 
decrees  in  dififerent  fields  of  social  life.  The  indivi- 
dual  conscience  which  overthrew  authoritative  religion, 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  27 

also  overthrew  authoritative  morality,  except  in  so 
far  as  law  still  controlled,  as  it  had  always  been  its 
function  to  control,  obvious  and  flagrant  breaches  of 
moral  law,  as  being  fatal  to  the  national  life.  But  the 
individual  conscience  has  not  in  all  cases  alike  filled 
the  place  of  that  which  it  overthrew.  To  take  merely 
a  single  instance  of  moral  duties  that  lie  in  the  main 
outside  the  range  of  law  :  I  do  not  suppose  any  one 
would  say  that  the  current  code  as  to  the  life  of  the 
family,  as  to  the  relations  between  husband  and  wife, 
and  between  parent  and  child,  is  all  that  we  could 
wish.  But  none  could  well  deny  that  in  this  region 
conscience  acts  as  a  constant  moral  force,  supporting 
recognized  moral  principles,  advancing  acknowledged 
moral  ends,  to  an  incomparably  greater  degree  than 
in  the  relations  between  buyer  and  seller,  or  between 
employer  and  employed. 

This  is  the  want,  then,  on  which  I  insist.  Econo- 
mics, as  a  branch  of  morals,  does  not  exist.  We 
cannot  do  what  we  ought,  unless  we  know  what  we 
ought  to  do.  And  we  don't  know  what  we  ought 
to  do.  It  is  not  Political  Economy,  but  conscience, 
that  is  to  blame — conscience,  and  those  whose  duty  it 
is  to  serve  its  guidance  and  enlightenment.  Many 
excellent  people  have  an  easy  and  conclusive  theory 
that  a  man's  conscience  will  always  tell   him  what 


28  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

his  duty  is  if  he  will  listen  to  it.  No  doubt  this  is 
perfectly  true,  if  it  is  allowed,  among  other  qualifica- 
tions, that  conscience  sometimes  tells  him  that  he 
does  not  know  what  he  ought  to  do,  and  that  his 
duty  is  not  to  rest  till  he  finds  out.  A  double  appeal, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  is  wanted,  to  those  who,  by 
profession  or  capacity,  are  qualified  and  commissioned 
to  deal  with  the  theory  of  duty,  and  to  the  mass 
of  us,  who,  after  all,  have  got  to  do  our  duty,  and  for 
whom  moral  teachers  and  moral  theorists  can  do  very 
little,  unless  we  are  at  work  on  our  own  account  and 
in  our  own  sphere  to  find  out  what  our  duty  is,  and 
to  do  it.  As  it  is,  I  maintain  that  our  ignorance 
'stares  us  in  the  face.  To  go  back  to  one  of  the 
instances  to  which  I  have  already  alluded — buying 
cheap.  We  know  the  evils  of  cheap  production. 
How  are  we  to  avoid  contributing  to  them  ?  Buying 
dear  is  an  easy,  but  in  many  ways  an  unsatisfactory 
way  out  of  the  difficulty,  and  it  is  not  much,  if  at  all, 
a  more  moral  proceeding  than  buying  cheap.  How 
are  we  to  know  what  is  the  right  price  at  which  to 
buy,  so  as  not  to  support  oppression  and  feed  on 
misery  ?  We  don't  know ;  and  we  don't  know  because 
to  do  so  is  not  a  generally  recognized  end.  The 
moral  view  of  so  ordinary  a  transaction  does  not 
exist.     If  I  want  to  buy  a  particular  article  or  com- 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  29 

modity,  it  is  not  difficult  for  me  to  ascertain  where  to 
buy  it  cheapest,  or  best,  or  dearest;  but  it  is  more 
than  difficult  for  me  to  find  out  where  I  can  buy  it 
and  pay  the  right  price  for  it.  Our  mediaeval  friend, 
whom  these  wearisome  arguments  have  lulled  to 
sleep,  may  well  wake  up  here  to  say,  "  Ah,  we  had 
an  authority  to  fix  that.  He  may  not  have  always 
fixed  it  rightly  ;  but  there  he  was."  Well,  we  have 
an  authority — conscience;  as  we  believe,  a  conscience 
better  authority  in  these  things  than  external  thrown  the 

authoritative 

authority;  but  our  authority  does  not  speak.  |J^^^^ndhas 
This   is   merely  one  instance.     In  a   dozen  hsViaJe  by'^ 

the  systema- 

other  instances,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  on  sub-  tic  assertion 

of  its  own 

jects  on  which  conscience  ought  to  have  a  authority. 
voice  it  has  nothing  to  say.  I  plead  for  the  exten- 
sion of  the  efforts  and  of  the  actual  authority  of 
conscience  over  the  field  of  economics.  That  this 
field  belongs  to  conscience  by  a  right  which  no 
science  can  dispute,  I  have  endeavoured  to  show. 
That  this  claim  of  conscience  is  not  realized,  in  fact, 
seems  to  me  to  need  no  further  proof  than  an  attempt 
to  arrive  at  a  clear  idea  of  almost  any  given  economic 
duty.  It  remains  only  to  show  that  the  field  is  con- 
genial to  the  authority  to  which  it  of  right  belongs ; 
and  this  may  be  shown  on  the  evidence  of  the  science 
whose  right  to  furnish  moral  or  practical  principles 


30  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

I  have  denied,  but  whose  practical  value  and  interest 
I  should  wish  distinctly  to  maintain. 

As  to  the  field  offered  to  moral  theory  by  com- 
^^j  ^j.  mercial  and  industrial  life,  there  is  indeed 
\\i^Z^ni\A  much  to  be  said.     I  have  heard  it  seriously 

congenial  to  .  . 

conscience—  maintained    that   a    merchant's   life   is   one 

a  field  in 

mS  forces  which  no  high-miuded  man  could  choose  as 
a  field  for  moral  energy,  with  the  hope  of 
carrying  out  a  lofty  moral  purpose.  Such  a  view  may 
be  extreme,  but  in  a  milder  form  it  is  very  widely 
spread.  Many,  if  not  most  people,  regard  mercantile 
business  as  a  life  whose  end  is  to  make  money.  And 
this  business  is  supposed  to  be  pursued,  under  moral 
restraints,  indeed,  which  forbid  clear  and  obvious  dis- 
honesty, but  in  obedience  to  no  high  or  inspiring 
moral  principle.  The  presence  of  any  higher  inspiration 
we  commonly  expect  to  be  shown,  not  so  much  in  the 
way  money  is  made,  as  in  the  way  it  is  spent.  There 
is  a  story  of  a  man  with  one  wooden  leg,  who  stole 
a  pair  of  boots  and  gave  away  the  odd  boot  in  charity. 
The  devotion  to  charity  of  the  superfluity  of  wealth 
unscrupulously  gained  is  not  commonly  supposed  to 
condone  any  dishonesty  in  the  means  by  which  it 
is  acquired,  but  there  is  a  good  deal  of  one-legged 
morality  in  the  common  practice,  and  still  more  in  the 
common  theory  of  commercial  life.     If  I  have  seemed 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  31 

to  cry  down  the  moral  dignity  of  economic  science, 
I  am  by  no  means  disposed  to  acquiesce  in  this  low 
view  of  the  moral  character  of  commercial  life  in  itself 
I  cannot  understand  how  any  one  can  devote  any 
study  to  this  subject,  or  even  survey  the  obvious  facts 
of  the  system  in  which  we  live,  without  being  im- 
pressed beyond  all  words  with  the  magnificence  and 
scope  of  the  moral  forces  that  are  at  work  in  our 
commercial  and  industrial  life.  I  have  spoken  of  the 
defects  of  our  moral  theory  in  economics.  Defective 
moral  theory  must  arise  from  and  tend  to  produce 
defective  moral  practice.  But  as  the  taint  of  sin  in 
human  nature  does  not  avail  to  hide  the  glory  of  the 
image  in  which  we  are  made,  so  no  defects  of  moral 
theory,  however  great  they  may  be,  can  avail  to  con- 
ceal or  to  destroy  the  moral  strength  that  remains  in 
this  gigantic  system.  The  giant  is  a  blind  giant  if  you 
will,  but  he  has  the  majestic  frame  and  mighty  thews 
of  a  moral  giant  none  the  less.  The  vast  fabric  and 
frame  of  the  economic  life  of  the  world  is  alive  with 
moral  forces,  is  strong  with  a  moral  strength,  so  far 
as  it  is  strong  at  all,  and  when  all  is  said  it  is  strong 
indeed.  I  have  spoken  of  the  motive  of  self-interest  as, 
to  say  the  least  of  it,  morally  insufiicient.  But,  after 
all,  self-preservation  is  a  duty,  though  a  comparatively 
low  one,  of  the  individual.     And  when  mutual  self- 


32  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

preservation  is  the  result  of  the  common  life  of  the 
members  of  a  society,  and  the  attainment  of  this  result 
is  any  part  of  their  motive,  we  are  in  the  presence  of 
a  great  moral  power  doing  a  great  moral  work,  in 
the  removal,  by  however  slow  degrees,  of  those  condi- 
tions of  want  and  misery  which  are  bred  by  sin,  and 
breed  it.  It  still  remains  to  be  said  that  this  view  of 
the  dignity  of  economic  life,  and  of  any  place  in  the 
system  which  makes  for  these  results,  is  not  the 
prevailing  view ;  it  remains  to  be  said  that  it  should 
be  brought  into  clear  consciousness,  and  become  no 
mere  undercurrent  of  feeling,  but  a  dominant  faith. 
But  the  first  step  towards  this  is  to  see  the  real  moral 
value  of  the  work  done,  and  of  the  motive  which,  so 
far  as  it  operates,  is  a  real  agent  in  the  doing  of  it. 
But  we  may  go  far  beyond  this.  Commercial  and 
industrial  life,  as  they  stand,  do,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
however  it  may  come,  proceed  upon  moral  principles 
of  the  highest  value,  exemplify  them  on  a  vast  and 
colossal  scale,  and  bring  about  by  their  means  the 
most  amazing  results. 

For  instance,  credit  is  a  term  of  business  and  of 

economics  which  stands,  we  know,  for  a  whole 

world  of  facts — facts  which,  if  we  look  at 

them,  surpass  almost  every  other  wonder  of  the  world. 

It  is  familiar   to   us   that  for  food  and  clothes  and 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  33 

furniture,  and  all  the  ordinary  equipment  of  life,  we 
are  each  one  of  us  dependent  on  a  world-wide  and 
intricate  system  of  combined  and  divided  labour.  We 
know  that  this  vast  machinery  of  production  makes 
its  various  produce  available  in  all  parts  of  the 
world  through  a  no  less  vast  and  intricate  system 
of  exchange.  But  what  is  the  means  by  which  this 
exchange  is  effected,  and  by  which  what  we  need 
and  enjoy  is  brought  to  our  doors  ?  Money  ?  Money, 
coined  money,  stands  to  the  real  means  of  commercial 
exchange  in  somewhat  the  proportion  in  which  copper 
coins  stand  to  the  rest  of  the  currency.  The  real 
means  of  exchange  of  the  larger  commerce,  on  which 
all  the  smaller  commerce  of  everyday  life  depends,  are 
various  instruments  of  credit.  Without  the  operation 
of  credit  the  whole  system  would  go  to  pieces  like  a 
world  without  gravitation.  And  credit,  if  we  translate 
the  word  from  the  language  of  commerce  and  econo- 
mics into  the  language  of  morals — credit  means  trust, 
and  trust  implies  trustworthiness.  In  our  dependence 
on  this  vast  system  of  production  and  exchange,  we 
are  members  of  a  great  moral  world  of  human  trust 
and  human  trustworthiness.  Every  now  and  then 
trust  fails  or  is  abused.  There  have  been  two 
instances  in  Scotland,  in  the  last  twenty  years,  of 
disasters  produced  by  the  abuse  of  trust,  in  commercial 


34  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

and  industrial  concerns  respectively;  and  the  indig- 
nation they  excited  is  a  sign  of  the  moral  power 
which  lies,  not  dormant,  but  not  in  the  full  con- 
sciousness or  exercise  of  its  strength,  in  the  body  of 
our  life. 

Commercial  and  industrial  life,  then,  is  a  moral  fabric. 
Conscience  will  enter  into  it  and  find  itself  at  home, 
with  plenty  to  do,  no  doubt,  to  set  its  house  in  order, 
but  in  no  strange,  repulsive  scene ;  among  people  who 
speak  its  own  language,  though  it  may  be  with  an 
unfamiliar  accent :  it  will  be  organizing  the  govern- 
ment of  a  province,  whose  natives  have  instincts  and 
habits  that  correspond  to  the  definite  laws  and  institu- 
tions it  will  seek  to  establish.  This  is  the  work  of 
conscience  and  of  moral  theory  and  enlightenment 
in  every  part  of  human  life.  Deep  down  in  the  human 
heart  itself  lie  the  instincts  that  grow  to  be  the 
principles  of  life.  They  are  part  of  the  lines  of  the 
original  foundation.  They  are  hidden  in  the  structure 
of  the  seed  that  is  to  grow  into  a  mighty  tree.  They 
cannot  be  imposed  from  without  unless  they  can  be 
evoked  from  within.  Economic  life  is  a  human  thing, 
made  by  men  who  had  in  them  the  instincts  of  fellow- 
ship and  help,  and  who,  even  where  they  disregarded, 
could  not  w^holly  contradict  the  laws  which  are 
essential  to  the  cohesion  of  any  society,  and   under 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  35 

which  alone  a  truly  human  soul  can  live  its  life  and 
be  content. 

The  field  of  economic  life,  then,  is  intensely  and 
truly  congenial  to  the  authority  that  should  ^^^  accord- 
rule   it.      And,   if    this   is    so,   plainly   the  be\iiiow?d^' 

•     !•         If..  1.        r.11     that  Political 

science  which  has  busied  itself  m  this  field  Economy,  as 

It  stands — 

must  itself  be  fitted  to  serve,  in  some  way,  whicS' works 
the  purpose  of  this  authority;  it  must  take  serves  a  real, 
its  place,  thouojh  it  may  be  a   subordinate  subordinate 

■•-  '  ~  •'  moral  pur- 

place,  in  the  moral  government  of  the  eco-  ^°^^~ 
nomic  world. 

Political  Economy,  as  presenting  the  actual  spectacle 
of  this  great  field  of  human  life,  cannot  fail  to  be 
a  study  of  fascinating  and  surpassing  interest.  But, 
beyond  this,  it  serves  a  twofold  moral  purpose.  I 
have  tried  to  show  that  it  cannot  claim  to  be  a 
science  of  the  moral  ends   that  should  rule  ,  ^     , 

(i)  as  the 

and   guide   commercial    and   industrial   life,  themeanlto 

1       .         /»    /.  moral  ends ; 

Observation  and  the  analysis  of  fact  are  not 
the  source  of  moral  principles.  But  though  it  must 
not  be  allowed  to  usurp  the  place  of  a  science  of 
economic  ends  or  principles,  it  must  fill  an  important 
place  as  the  science  of  economic  means.  Let  a  man 
bo  equipped  as  well  as  he  may  with  true  economic 
principles,  with  true  conceptions  of  the  main  end  of 
economic  life  as  a  whole,  and  of  the  great  factors  and 


36  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

agents  in  its  work,  he  must  still  know,  and  know 
intimately,  the  actual  world  in  which  these  principles 
are  to  be  applied,  before  he  can  apply  them.  He  has 
to  act  upon  men,  and  among  men  and  with  men ;  he 
must  know  the  average  economic  man  with  whom 
he  has  to  deal.  His  principles  have  to  find  their 
way  along  roads  that  are  alread}?-  trodden  by 
thousands  and  thousands  of  busy  and  laborious  men. 
He  must  know  the  map  of  the  country.  He  must  go 
down  among  the  crowd  who  do  the  work,  whether 
they  do  it  well  or  ill ;  he  must  watch  them  at  their 
work  ;  he  must  know  their  minds,  their  methods,  their 
habits,  their  pursuits.  And  for  all  this  he  must  go 
to  the  science  which  deals  with  economic  life  as  it 
is.  Conscience,  as  the  teacher  of  moral  principles  in 
this  as  in  any  other  department  of  life,  cannot  live 
apart  and  declaim  upon  the  heights.  We  must  see 
the  unguided  instincts  at  their  work ;  we  must  dis- 
cern in  their  actual  working  their  true  motive  and 
principle ;  we  must  be  familiar  with  life.  Ends  and 
means  are  two  different  things,  but  they  are  different 
in  idea  rather  than  distinct  in  fact.  If  men  are  to 
be  led  to  seek  real  wealth,  we  must  see  what  is  the 
wealth  they  do  seek.  If  they  are  to  produce  it  by 
methods  that  are  in  accord  with  the  true  end  to  be 
pursued,  we  must   know  what  the   methods  are  by 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  37 

which  it  is  produced.  In  that  process  of  moral  reason- 
ing which  produces  action,  the  minor  premise  is  often 
more  than  half  the  battle ;  and  we  cannot  get  the 
minor  premise  which  will  bring  principle  into  play 
in  the  world  of  fact,  without  using  all  the  resources 
of  that  economic  science,  which  sets  out  before  us 
economic  life  as  it  is,  and  as  it  has  been,  in  the 
w^orld  of  present  reality  and  fact.  In  the  first  place, 
then,  Political  Economy — the  Political  Economy  we 
know  of  old — serves  the  purpose  of  economic  morals 
as  giving  the  means  to  its  end. 

But    it    serves   another    and   a    more   impressive, 
thouixh  not  a  more  essential,  purpose.     The  C2)asafford- 

o  •'•■'•  ing  a  spec- 

laws  of  Political  Economy  have  sometimes  molaUov-^ 

had  assigned  to  them  the  rank  which  we  thevTorid— 
momentarily  gave  to  them  in  our  comparison  of 
modern  and  mediseval  economic  life.  They  are  some- 
times spoken  of  as  laws  of  the  Divine  Governance  of 
the  world.  With  the  falsehood  of  this  contention  we 
have  already  dealt.  Plainly,  the  laws  by  which  God 
governs  economic  life  are  the  laws  by  which  He  governs 
the  whole  life  of  man — the  laws  of  right  and  wrong. 
And  in  this  government,  conscience  is  His  vicar,  and 
the  human  will  His  ao;ent.  If  we  disreo^ard  the 
oblio^ation  to  brinoj  our  economic  conduct  under  the 
sway  of  these  laws,  to  learn  t]ji>j3a5|mh^te^hem,  it 

VxJ^   OF  THJ?^^$^ 

'UHIVEE3IT 


38  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

is  at  best  an  unconsciously  hypocritical  delusion  to 
plead  that,  in  pursuing  his  own  interest  and  leaving 
the  consequences  to  take  care  of  themselves,  man  is 
leaving  the  results  to  God.  We  are  leaving  them  to 
God  in  the  same  sense  in  which  a  mother,  who  stifles 
the  instincts  of  love  and  abandons  her  child,  is  leaving 
her  child  to  God.  We  are  neglecting  our  duty,  and 
leaving  God  to  deal  with  and  remedy  the  evil  con- 
sequences of  our  neglect.  True,  God  has  given  us 
the  instinct  of  self-preservation  which  leads  a  man 
to  pursue  his  own  interest;  but  He  has  also  given 
us  the  instinct  to  identify  this  self  which  we  preserve 
with  the  selves  of  others,  and  with  the  universal  Self 
of  God.  And  in  the  development  of  our  nature,  this 
latter  instinct  has  assumed,  in  what  we  call  con- 
science, the  authority  over  the  other.  The  first 
truth  about  God's  moral  government  of  human  life 
is,  that  His  laws  are  meant  to  come  into  operation 
through  the  agency  of  human  wills.  But  when  we 
have  said  this,  it  still  remains  to  be  said,  that  while 
God  governs  men  first  of  all  by  themselves.  He 
governs  them  also  in  spite  of  themselves.  And 
it  would  be  most  ungrateful  not  to  acknowledge 
the  moral  service  rendered  to  the  world  by  Political 
Economy,  in  exhibiting  this  side  of  the  moral 
government  of  God.      It  sets  before  us  what,  as  a 


CONSCIENCE  AND  POLITICAL  ECONOMY.  39 

matter  of  fact,  occurs,  and  what  actually  occurs  has 
a  moral  bearino:.  There  is  no  field  of  observation 
and  knowledo^e  which  is  not  a  source  of  Divine  reve- 
lation.  Political  Economy  is  a  doctrine  of  judgment 
on  sloth,  on  luxury,  on  waste,  on  shortsighted  selfish- 
ness, on  crass  stupidity,  on  rash  and  inconsiderate 
pride.  And,  more  than  this,  it  exhibits  the  steady 
pressure  of  reward  and  punishment,  by  which  men 
are  won  from  lower  to  higher  ways  of  life ;  of  the 
guidance — it  seems  scarcely  reverent  to  say  the  over- 
ruling guidance — under  which  the  blind  instincts  of 
the  tribes  of  men  grope  their  way  out  of  the  darkness 
of  mistrust  and  mutual  war  into  the  clear  light  of 
mutual  faith  and  loyal  fellowship.  It  shows  us  a 
spectacle  of  human  life  which  is  also  a  spectacle  of 
Divine  design — design  not  forced  upon  an  unwilling, 
but  evoked  from  an  unconscious  world,  where  mutual 
need  grows  into  mutual  help ;  and  the  fellowship  of 
men  is  knit  by  no  external  bonds,  but  by  the  ties 
of  that  knowledge  and  good  will  which  emerge  in 
the  community  of  help,  into  one  world-wide  ministry 
to  life  and  love. 

And  yet  the  picture  has  dark  patches,  not  only  here 
and  there.  The  more  we  see  that  the  soul  and  guid- 
ing spirit  of  the  whole  is  good,  the  more  resonant  is 
the  cry  that  rises  from  the   great   discordant   scene 


40  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

for  the  harmonizing  rule  of  some  triumphant  power. 
It   appeals    to  something  deeper  than  con- 

a  spectacle 

Tu-rngSl^and  scieuce,  this  world  of  opportunities  for  love. 

weakness,  a         i  d     ^  i        -\         ' 

suffering       A  strauge  power  oi  change  seems  to  be  in- 

and  success, 

which  is       herent  in  the  landscape  of  life.     It  is  dark 

Itself  the  ^ 

appefuo  ^^^  light  by  turns.  At  one  moment  it  is  the 
appointed  sphere  of  helpful  energy,  of  human 
kindness,  and  Divine  enlightenment.  At  another  it 
is  a  field  of  ghastly  struggle,  a  battle-ground  full 
of  cries  of  wounded  men  rising  through  the  gather- 
ing darkness  of  death.  And  both  pictures  are  true. 
We  are  summoned  to  go  down  into  the  light  and  into 
the  shade,  to  help  the  wounded,  and  to  rejoice  the 
hearts  of  the  strong,  when  we  have  learnt  what 
tyranny  of  evil  it  is  that  strikes  men  down  in  needy, 
joyless  lives,  and  can  teach  the  strong,  who  know  only 
half  their  strength,  how  to  unlock  the  doors  of  happi- 
ness and  hope. 


11. 

COMPETITION,  THE   LAW   OF   LIFE. 

"  So  God  created  man  in  His  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created 
He  him ;  male  and  female  created  He  them.  And  God  blessed  them, 
and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the 
earth."-GEN.  i.  27,  28. 

This   is   the  first  command   addressed  to   man — the 

command    to   live.      It    is   implied    in  the  ^,^ 

^  1  he  coin- 

creative   word   that   called  him  into  being,  ^llhot^ilr^ 

Here  in  the  story  of  Genesis,  which  gives 
us  the  picture  of  Creation,  it  is  embodied  in  the  first 
words  which  are  put  into  the  mouth  of  God  as 
addressed  to  man.  How  is  the  command  fulfilled  to- 
day ?  The  spoken  word  reveals  the  duty  which  lies 
in  the  nature  and  position  of  man,  in  his  desires  and 
his  surroundings.  How  is  the  duty  done  ?  How  do 
we  to-day — we,  made  in  the  image  of  God,  after  His 
likeness — how  do  we  fulfil  the  Divine  command  to  "  be 
fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  replenish  the  earth" — in  the 
image  of  God  ?  How  do  we  fulfil  the  command  to 
live  ? 


42  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

The  subject  of  the  means  by  which  we  live,  the 
The  main  systeDi  undcr  which  the  means  of  life  are 
economic       Droduccd,  is  familiar  to  us  in  one  way.     It 

life  is  com- 
petition. ]-jr,^g  i^een  made  the  matter  of  scientific  treat- 
ment and  inquiry.  And  though  the  science  which 
treats  of  the  economic  life  of  men  cannot  supplant 
conscience  and  the  law  of  God  as  the  source  of 
principles  of  duty,  it  does  show  us — Avhat  indeed  lies 
before  our  eyes — a  vast  and  wonderful  world  of  forces 
which  are  at  work  in  producing  the  means  of  life. 

It  has  been  said  of  nature  that  "in  the  very  act 
of  labouring  as  a  machine,  she  also  sleeps  as  a  picture." 
As  the  imagination  travels  over  the  field  of  the 
economic  life  of  men  described  by  the  economists, 
there  is  a  picture  indeed  before  the  eye  of  the  mind, 
not  less  wonderful  in  features  of  majestic  power,  in 
beauty  that  ranges  from  tragic  terror  to  tender  loveli- 
ness, than  the  landscape  of  the  visible  world.  Famine 
and  war,  and  starvation  and  despair  are  included  in 
the  story,  and  in  these  scenes  move  love  and  courage, 
the  incredible  patience  and  the  invincible  hope 
which  can  make  beautiful  the  terrors  of  death.  Every 
lovely  scene  of  simple  country  life,  the  shepherd  on 
the  hills,  the  ploughman  in  the  fields,  every  home 
which,  however  stinted  for  space,  can  glorify  with  the 
joys   of  human  love   the  dark  places  of  a  crowded 


COMPETITION,   THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  43 

manufacturing  town, — all  these,  too,  are  gathered  into 
the  picture  which  lies  before  us,  as  the  answer  to  the 
question,  How  do  we  live  ?  And  here,  too,  beneath 
the  surface  of  the  picture  there  are  vast  forces  at 
work.  Lie  on  a  Highland  hillside,  and  the  very 
rocks  that  are  under  you  tell  of  a  tremendous,  age-long 
work,  whose  history  is  traced  because  we  still  can  see 
the  same  forces  at  the  same  work  to-day.  That 
sleeping  w^orld  of  beauty  is  alive  with  powers  before 
which  imagination  quails.  Watch  the  larches  as  the 
life  of  spring  begins  to  show^  upon  them.  That  shade 
of  green  upon  the  gray  means  that  there  are  a 
thousand  thousand  buds,  in  every  one  of  which  the 
gentle  force  of  life  is  pushing  its  way;  the  sleeping 
world  is  alive.  It  is  pleasant  to  lie  upon  the  heather 
and  be  still ;  but  you  are  not  alone.  In  the  rustling  of 
every  bough  you  can  hear  the  whispered  echo  of  the 
command  addressed  to  them,  as  w^ell  as  to  you,  "Be 
fruitful,  and  multiply."  It  is  pleasant  to  lie  amid  the 
ease  and  the  comforts  of  life,  and  to  look  on  this 
larger  landscape  of  a  human  world  which  supports 
you,  and  sustains  your  life  and  your  enjoyment;  but 
it,  too,  is  a  world  of  living  forces ;  and  as  the  world 
of  nature  has  been  presented  by  science  as  the  scene 
of  a  great  struggle  for  existence,  so  the  first  fact  we 
have  to  meet  about  this  economic  world,  by  and  in 


44  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

which  we  live,  is  this — it  is  a  world  of  competi- 
tion. 

And  this  economic  world  is  a  moral  world.     It  is 
In  what        as  moral  beings  that  we  are  concerned  with 

sense  is  this  . 

commanded?  cconomic  life.  We  have  not  only  to  con- 
template and  to  understand  the  forces  that  are  at 
work  about  us;  we  are  responsible  for  our  share 
in  them.  That  competition  is  a  "  law  "  of  the 
economic  world,  in  the  sense  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  is  a  pervading  feature  of  economic  life,  is  plain 
enough.  Competition,  as  the  struggle  for  the  larger 
share  of  the  means  and  comforts  of  life,  like  the 
struggle  between  two  men  who  have  hold  of  opposite 
ends  of  the  same  stick,  is  certainly  a  feature  of 
economic  life.  Competition,  in  the  more  precise 
meaning  of  the  struggle  for  the  power  of  supplying 
the  means  of  life  and  enjoyment  to  others,  is  no  less 
so.  In  this  sense,  certainly  competition  is  a  "  law  " 
of  the  production  of  the  means  of  life.  It  is  a  law,  a 
universally  observed  and  well-established  fact,  that  the 
means  of  life  are  produced  by  competition.  This  is 
how  we  do  live.  But  we  have  a  further  question  to 
ask.  We  are  under  a  command  to  live.  How,  and 
in  what  sense,  does  the  command  to  live  carry  with 
it  the  command  to  compete  ?  How  far,  and  in  what 
sense,  is  competition  a  law,  not  of  fact,  but  of  obliga- 


COMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  45 

tion  and  of  duty  ?     That  is  the  question  with  which 
I  propose  here  to  deal. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  command  to  live.  Apart  from 
any  history  or  picture  of  Creation  in  the  Bible 
or  elsewhere,  is  it  not  with  the  desire  to  live  t°rtuaicom- 
that  we  have  to  do  ?  And  is  it  not  the  func- 
tion of  moral  command  and  obligation,  of  conscience 
and  of  law,  human  and  Divine,  to  restrain  desire  ? 
Certainly  the  desire  to  live  is  the  force  at  work  in  com- 
petition; certainly  it  is  the  prerogative  of  conscience  to 
restrain  desire.  But  the  right  of  conscience  to  restrain 
desire  arises  from  this,  that  it  is  no  alien  visitor  to 
human  nature,  but  the  enlightened  utterance  of  man's 
original  aim.  It  is  the  one  supreme,  and  should  be  the 
one  dominant,  desire — the  desire  to  live  well.  And 
the  root  of  its  authority  is  in  the  very  desire  which  it 
claims  to  control.  Every  desire  of  the  heart  of  man 
is  in  its  measure  authoritative ;  and  the  desire  to  live, 
though,  as  it  exists  in  us,  it  may  run  riot  and  lead  us 
to  live  ill,  is  in  itself  the  voice  of  the  Divine  command 
which  gave  us  birth. 

The  desire  to  live — that  is  the  force  whose  work- 
ing we  have  to  trace,  realizing  that  it  is  in 
itself  a  virtual  command,  a  rudimentary 
utterance  of  conscience,  a  voice  of  duty  and  of  right. 
Primarily,  and  on  the  face  of  it,  it  is  an  individual 


an  individual 
desire. 


46  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

desire — the  desire  to  maintain  and  enrich  an  indivi- 
dual life.  It  refers  to  a  single  self,  whose  cravings  are 
to  be  satisfied,  whose  existence  is  to  be  prolonged, 
whose  sphere  is  to  be  enlarged.  And  we  all  know 
that  it  can  take  forms  in  ourselves  in  which  it  is  not 
only  self-regarding,  but  selfish.  But,  in  any  case,  it 
appeals  to,  it  draws  from  these  single  sources  of 
spiritual  energy,  in  the  single,  individual  will  of  the 
single,  individual  soul,  that  wills,  by  an  instinct  deeper 
than  desire,  its  own  single,  individual  self-preserva- 
tion in  bodily  life.  That  is  the  command  that  it  has 
not  only  to  carry  out,  but  to  justify ;  that  is  the 
object  whose  attainment  has  to  assume  in  the  course 
of  its  working  the  moral  dignity  and  character 
which  will  justify  the  desire  to  live.  It  is  here  deep 
down  in  every  one  of  us,  the  desire  to  preserve  our 
own  souls  in  bodily  life.  It  is  in  its  original  nature 
a  command.  We  have  to  see  to  it  that  the  self,  the 
soul,  which  it  is  our  duty  to  preserve,  is  such  that 
it  can  be  a  duty  to  preserve  it. 

And  the  history  at  large  of  the  working  of  this 
desire  to  live  is  such  as  to  justify  its  moral 

but  bearing  *^  "^ 

ISra^Jockl  character.  Individual  as  it  is  in  its  essen- 
c  arac  er.  ^.^^  naturc,  appealing  direct  to  the  very  root 
and  spring  of  individual  life,  it  is  no  less  essentially 
social.     It  is  social  in  the  historical  surroundings  of 


COMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  47 

its  origin.  We  need  go  to  no  far-away  age  of  pre- 
historic man,  we  need  trace  no  half-imagined  history 
of  early  economic  life,  to  know  that  the  desire  to  live 
is  born  where  the  man  is  born,  in  a  society,  in  a 
family.  It  grows  into  consciousness  in  a  life  of 
dependence  on  others;  it  breathes  in  love  as  the 
answer  to  its  infant  craving;  it  begins  to  learn  at 
once,  by  the  response  from  without  which  makes 
explicit  the  desire  from  within,  what  is  the  stamp  and 
character,  the  very  nature  of  the  being  at  which  it 
aims.  A  social  life,  a  life  of  interdependence,  in  form 
however  rudimentary,  with  duties  however  imper- 
fectly fulfilled,  is  the  only  answer  which  meets  the 
individual  desire  to  live.  It  is  social,  then,  in  its 
origin  and  history;  it  is  certainly  not  less  social  in 
its  results.  By  its  own  necessary  working  it  leads, 
and  has  led  to  the  organization  of  a  society,  implying 
in  its  very  existence  a  certain  amount  of  moral 
motive  and  moral  action,  oflTering  occasion  for  far 
more. 

Let  us  look  at  its  work.     First  of  all,  as  faced  with 
the  forces  of  the  world,  the  command  to  live  n  takes 
becomes  the  command  to  labour.     Even  in  (inhe^com- 

mand  to 

this  world  of  toil  we  can  so  far  put  aside  the  labour; 
pain  and  misery  of  labour  as  to  picture  the  desire  to 
live,  working  in  a  world  of  labour  that  should  be  no 


48  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

toil,  in  which  the  doom  should  not  yet  have  been 
heard,  "  In  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  thou  shalt  eat 
bread."  As  it  stands,  it  is  in  no  ideal,  sinless  world 
that  we  see  the  duty  of  living  lead  to  the  duty  of 
work.  Among  the  moral  principles  commonly  recog- 
nized in  our  life,  perhaps  the  soundest  and  the 
simplest  is  found  in  our  apprehension — at  least,  as 
regards  the  poor — of  S.  Paul's  principle,  that  "  if  a 
man  will  not  work,  neither  shall  he  eat."  Certainly, 
as  it  stands,  man,  with  this  instinct  of  self-support 
strong  within  him,  finds  himself  faced  with  a  world, 
from  which  he  has  to  wring  his  life.  The  duty  of 
work  takes  higher  forms;  but  its  first  and  simplest 
source  is  in  the  duty,  which  is  implied  in  the  desire, 
to  live.  So,  then,  the  units  of  our  social  life,  the 
springs  of  the  force  that  works  in  the  economic  world, 
have  grown  from  units  of  desire  to  units  of  labour. 
Each  man  has  to  work  out  his  life,  to  work  out  his 
own  bodily  salvation.  You  come  into  the  world  with 
this  strong  instinct  and  command  latent  in  your  soul. 
Your  life  lies  before  you ;  but  you  must  be  at  the 
pains  to  take  it.  The  world  challenges  your  force, 
your  intelligence,  your  strength.  We  see  nations  and 
men  too  so  challenged  by  difficulty  and  depression,  by 
danger  and  need ;  and  we  rejoice  to  see  the  force 
evoked  which  enables  them  to  rise,  and  to  work  out 


COMPETITION,  THE  LA  W  OF  LIFE.  49 

their  life.    They  show  themselves  equal  to  the  duty  of 

living,  because  they  meet  the  duty  of  work. 

But  though,  in  one  aspect,  the  world  of  labour  is 

a  world  of  toiling  units,  each  bearing  the  (2)  the  com- 
mand to 
burden  of  its  own  life,  there  is  another  side  combine 

to   the   picture.     Never   in    any    past   that  we    can 
reach   has  the  individual  man   laboured  to   support 
his  own  life  himself  by  himself  alone.     And  as  soon 
as  industry  and  econo^mic  life  begin  to  have  any  his- 
tory at  all,  we  are  following  forms  of  combination 
between   man   and   man,  which   daily  become  more 
intricate  and  more  complex.     Face  to  face  with  the 
forces  of  the  world,  man,  with  this  desire  to  live  in 
his  heart,  is  bound  not  only  to  labour,  but  to  combine. 
In  a  moral  consideration  of  economic  life,  it  is  most 
important  to  insist  that  what  is  commonly  called  the 
Division  of  Labour  is  first  a  Combination  of  Labour. 
Men  combine,  they  unite  their  forces  to  wring  their 
living  from  the  world.     And  then,  because  they  com- 
bine, they  organize,  telling  off  this  or  that  man  to  this 
or  that  part  of  the  work.  But  first  they  combine ;  and 
every  step  in  combination  is  rightly  a  step  in  fellow- 
ship, is  necessarily  a  step  in  opportunities  for  fellow- 
ship.    The   duty   to   live   has   become   the   duty   to 
labour,  and  the  duty  to  labour  has  become  the  duty 
to  live  in  fellowship  with  men  with  whom  you  maVe 

E 


50  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

a  common  aim — that  all  promote  the  life  of  each. 
The  wall  of  isolation,  if  it  was  ever  there,  is  broken 
down.  Long  and  long  ago,  men  were  led  by  the 
natural  working  of  the  moral  force  within  them  to  see 
that  my  desire  to  live  means,  and  is  one  with  that 
same  desire  to  live  in  others  who  live  and  work  by 
my  side. 

And  next  in  idea,  though,  perhaps,  by  no  separate 
step  in  history,  men  combined  become  men 

and  organize. 

organized ;  and  for  the  mere  instinct  and 
recognition  of  sympathetic  fellowship,  we  have  all  the 
duties  and  virtues  that  belong  to  the  mutual  subordi- 
nation of  the  members  of  a  social  body  one  to  another, 
in  which  the  eye  cannot  say  to  the  hand,  "  I  have  no 
need  of  thee,"  nor  yet  the  head  to  the  feet,  "  I  have  no 
need  of  you."  Who  can  estimate  the  moral  value  of 
this  advance,  or  of  any  step  in  it?  You,  the  individual 
soul,  we  looked  at  you  first  as  a  single  unit  of  desire, 
feeling  instinctively  bound  to  preserve  your  own  ex- 
istence. You  are  so  still ;  but  what  are  you  more  ? 
The  multitudes  who  jostle  you  in  the  crowd  are  no 
mere  struggling  units ;  they  are  a  vast  organized 
body  which  knows  its  common  needs,  and  evokes 
from  you,  as  your  fulfilment  of  your  duty  to  live,  the 
exercise  of  whatever  special  faculty  there  lies  in  you 
to  fulfil  some  special  need.     Your  capacity  to  live  is 


COMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  51 

your  privilege  to  help,  and  to  help  in  some  special 
way  peculiar  to  yourself,  the  life,  not  of  yourself, 
but  of  mankind.  And  in  the  fulfilment  of  this  work, 
by  which  you  obey  the  primal  command  to  live,  in 
carrying  out  into  tangible  and  helpful  results  the 
powers  that  lie  dormant  in  your  soul,  what  do  you 
learn  to  do  ?  To  obey  and  to  rule ;  to  submit  to,  to 
sympathize  with,  to  understand,  to  enter  into,  the 
faculties  and  souls  of  other  men.  It  is  a  spiritual 
body,  indeed,  to  which  you  belong,  traversed  from 
head  to  foot  by  spiritual  forces,  demanding  from  every 
member  of  it  obedience  to  moral  laws,  giving  occasion 
at  every  step  of  its  life  for  obedience  to  those  spiritual 
principles  which  are  the  salvation  of  the  world. 

Already  the  duty  to  live  leads  man,  we  see,  to  the 
dignity  of  labour,  to  the  truth  of  fellowship,  g  ^ ; , 
to  the  virtues  of  subordination  and  organized  orgTni^fd 

life. 

life.  Follow  the  development  in  one  or  two 
directions  a  step  further  on.  Labour  combined  and 
organized,  lightened  by  fellowship,  quickened  by  the 
distribution  of  difierent  offices,  gives  to  men,  to  some 
men  at  least,  leisure  to  think  and  to  enjoy.  Life 
begins  to  mean  more  than  mere  subsistence.  There 
is  time  for  the  sight  of  beauty  and  the  pleasure  of 
living  to  give  birth  to  all  the  arts,  which  minister  to 
those  desires,  refined  or  depraved,  that  grow  up  in  a 


52  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

luxurious  and  civilized  society.  With  whatever  evils 
dogging  the  steps  of  its  progress,  life  begins  to  mean 
something  higher,  more  refined,  more  intelligent,  more 
cultivated,  with  deeper,  stronger  joys. 

And  all  this  reacts  on  the  life  of  labour  itse-lf. 
Leisure  lends  itself  to  thought,  and  the  man  who 
has  ceased  to  need  to  labour  for  life  still  likes  to 
labour  for  more  pleasurable  life  ;  still  finds  the  world 
of  labour  appeals  to  his  intelligence  to  seek  new 
methods,  new  directions  of  work,  which  may  lighten 
the  labour  and  quicken  the  enjoyment  of  the  lives 
of  men;  still  likes  to  set  the  redoubled  resources 
won  by  well-directed  labour  to  work,  to  enrich  men's 
lives  by  fresh  labour  in  fresh  fields. 

And,  again,  in  the  allotment  of  resources  by  birth 
and  by  the  reward  of  work,  men  find  the  desire  to 
live  taking  a  new  shape  in  the  desire  to  improve  and 
exercise  to  the  full  these  resources  themselves.  The 
land  or  the  brains  that  you  inherit  are  before  you 
as  a  field  of  life,  your  own ;  a  field  to  work  in  and 
live  in,  to  give  scope  and  fulness  to  your  life. 

It  is  no  part  of  my  purpose  here  to  trace  the  diffi- 
cult lines  of  duty  which  are  laid  down  for  those  to 
whom,  through  the  working  of  this  great  economic 
system,  God  has  given  the  capital  which  employs  the 
labour  of  others,  or  the  talent  and  power  to  direct 


COMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  53 

their  labour ;  or  to  define  the  responsibilities  of  the 
command  of  special  resources,  whether  in  the  owner- 
ship of  land,  or  in  the  unique  command  of  eminent 
intellectual  capacity.  All  these  are  matters  of  duty, 
and,  if  so,  of  Christian  duty.  But  what  I  wish  to 
point  out  is  that,  in  all  these  directions,  the  original 
command  to  man  to  live  out  his  life  is  being  fulfilled 
in  a  more  and  more  intricate  system  of  moral  fellow- 
ship and  interdependence,  affording  opportunities  for 
public  service,  for  self-sacrifice,  for  devotion,  which 
might  well  turn  dizzy  the  consciences  of  men,  who 
were  not  used  to  the  spectacle  of  the  use  and  abuse 
of  these  occasions  of  life,  offered  to,  and  taken  by  men 
made  in  the  image  of  God. 

But  in  all  this  process,  what  has  the  command  to 
live  become  ?     There  it  stands  still,  a  com-  (3)  The  com 

mand  to 

mand  to  you  to  take  your  part  in  the  original  help; 
duty  of  man,  to  "  be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and 
replenish  the  earth,"  a  command  latent  in  the  strong 
instinct  which  you  feel  in  your  own  soul — to  you  the 
first  command  from  God — to  live  out  this  being  that 
He  has  given  you,  to  be  a  living  man,  to  live. 
There  it  stands :  it  has  not  passed  away.  Only,  in 
the  course  of  following  out  your  instinctive  obedience 
to  this  command,  you  have  learnt  something  of  what 
was  meant  by  being  made  "in  the  image  of  God." 


54  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

The  command  to  live  remains ;  it  rests  upon  you,  with 
the  full  weight  of  obligation  absolutely  inseparable 
from  your  own  personal  existence.  You,  as  you  are  ; 
you,  filled  by  the  ministry  of  men  with  all  the  fulness 
of  God;  you,  fed  in  body,  soul,  and  spirit,  by  the 
labour  and  thought,  by  the  effort  and  desire  of  millions 
of  living  human  things  all  over  the  wide  world ;  you, 
whose  sole,  single,  individual  desire  to  preserve  your 
own  sole,  single,  individual  existence  is  gratified  by  all 
these  myriad  lives  ;  you,  into  the  very  composition  of 
whose  soul,  into  your  afi*ections  and  desires,  into  your 
purpose  and  will,  into  your  very  mind  and  thoughts 
the  affections  and  wills  and  minds  of  millions  of  man- 
kind have  entered  in;  you,  so  made  and  fed;  you, 
living  in  all  this  world-wide  life — you  are  bidden  to 
live,  to  live  after  your  kind,  ''to  be  fruitful,  and 
multiply,"  true  to  the  laws  that  give  you  birth,  true 
to  the  nature  and  conditions  in  and  by  which  you 
live.  If,  at  the  day  of  judgment,  you  had  only  this 
to  answer  for  ! — Have  you  preserved  the  type  ?  Have 
you  lived  your  life  out  ?  Match  in  the  efforts,  in  the 
aims,  in  the  achievements  of  the  life  that  you  have 
lived,  the  sources  from  which  that  life  is  drawn,  the 
character  that  is  stamped  in  your  very  soul  and  in 
the  very  lineaments  of  your  face. 

For  what  has  it  made  you,  in  the  course  of  the 


COMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  55 

ages,  in  the  workings  of  the  Providence  of  God? 
What  has  it  made  you,  this  first  command,  this  primal 
instinct  to  live  ?  It  has  made  you  an  instrument  to 
meet  the  needs  of  others.  This  is  what  the  desire  to 
live  has,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  grown  into  and  become 
— a  desire  to  satisfy,  in  this  way  or  in  that,  the  needs 
of  other  men.  Are  you  proud  ?  What  is  your  pride  ? 
That  you  can  meet  some  need  of  men  better  than 
others  ?  Are  you  cursed  by  the  grip  of  self-indulgent 
sin  ?  What  is  the  curse  ?  That  whatever  of  use  and 
help  there  is  in  you  is  paralyzed  and  dumb.  Are 
you  sad  and  dissatisfied  with  yourself  and  with  your 
life  ?  Is  it  not  because,  somehow,  you  know  not  how 
— or,  you  know — you  have  missed  the  only  life  that 
is  a  man's  life  at  all,  the  life  in  which  a  man  is  known 
to  be  of  use  ?  This  is,  this  has  become  what  life 
means — to  help,  to  serve  the  needs  of  other  men.  No 
man  pretends  to  any  shadow  of  self-respect  who  can- 
not, at  least  by  some  hollow  pretence,  persuade  him- 
self to  believe  that  he  is  of  use.  The  command  to 
live,  the  instinct  to  preserve  your  own  life,  has 
become,  has  grown  into  this  instinct  to  seek  out  the 
means  by  which  you  can  serve  the  lives  of  other 
men. 

But   in  the    stress    and    pressure   of    our   human 
struggle  for  existence,  this  is  not  all.     The  command 


55  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

to  live  is  not  only  the  command  to  serve ;  it  is  the 
and  in  this     command  to  be  pre-eminent,  the  command 

help  to  excel;  ^ 

^sUi^vL''Ii'ra  ^o  excel.  Incidentally  it  is  the  command  to 
tion?""^^^'"  surpass  others  ;  and  competition,  in  that  view, 
is  subordinate  always  to  the  main  purpose,  which 
is  served  by  competition  in  any  view,  the  purpose  of 
help,  the  purpose  of  service,  the  purpose  of  co-opera- 
tion, the  purpose  of  love.  But,  positively  and  essen- 
tially, the  command  and  the  desire  to  live  have  become 
in  the  working  of  the  wisdom  of  God  the  command 
and  the  desire  to  do  the  best.  Not  better,  but  best ; 
not  better  than  others,  but  so  well  that  none  can  do 
better.  It  is  the  command  to  do  what  is  above  praise, 
what  contains  and  embodies  your  whole  and  highest 
self,  your  best  wisdom,  your  most  earnest  energy,  your 
most  sincere  and  perfect  good  will. 

And  it  is  on  this  last  outcome  of  the  working  of 
that  first  command,  of  that  primal  instinct,  to  live, 
that,  in  conclusion,  I  would  dwell.  The  command  to 
live  is,  has  become,  in  the  course  of  the  development 
of  our  economic  life,  the  command  to  excel  in  the 
service  of  others. 

This  is^the  outcome  of  all  our  consideration.  Your 
Hence,  your  Hfc  is  bouud  up  with  thc  livcs  of  othcr  men. 

work  must 

be  true;  Thls  cagcr,  keen  striving  towards  life,  to- 
wards  success,  enjoyment,   happiness,  repose,  has   to 


CCMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  57 

satisfy  itself  by  satisfying,  in  some  way,  the  same 
striving  in  other  men.  It  is  on  this  striving  in  other 
men  that  you  depend.  ^^You  will  not  play  them 
false  ?  You  will  not  for  bread  give  them  a  stone  ? 
You  will  let  your  work  be  true?  Mind  to  mind 
we  meet  in  this  intercourse  of  interdependent  life. 
Your  intelligence,  your  wit,  your  skill,  and  theirs, 
are  interchanged.  Will  you  use  these  powers  to  trick 
and  to  deceive  ?  If  so,  do  not  blink  the  fact,  you 
are  a  traitor  to  the  laws  of  life.  In  the  stress  and 
confusion  of  life,  in  the  intricate  complexity  of  the 
division  of  labour,  you  may  give  men  false  work  for 
true,  without  being  found  out,  without  suffering  for 
it  in  the  way  in  which,  if  the  machinery  of  our 
economic  life  were  perfect,  you  would  suflfer  for  it 
at  once.  But  you  are  false  to  the  law  of  Hfe,  false  to 
the  true  principle  of  this  social  system  which  the 
command  to  live  has  produced,  false  to  the  law  by 
which  you  live.  This  is  false  competition,  not  true 
competition.  True  competition  may  sometimes,  or 
often  lead  to  your  neighbour's  loss,  and  call  for 
the  intervention  of  a  higher  principle.  But  even 
then  the  loss  will  be  open  and  above  board.  First, 
then,  in  obeying  the  command  to  excel  in  the  service 
of  others,  your  work  must  be  what  it  professes  to 
be — it  must  be  true. 


58  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

And  next,  it  must  be  good ;  it  must  minister  to  life 
it  must  be  according  to  the  best  of  your  powers  and 
^°°  '  of  your  knowledge.     Think,  again,  by  what 

you  are  living— by  the  working  of  men's  striving 
after  life.  You  can  never  say,  ''Am  I  my  brother's 
keeper?  Let  him  have  what  he  asks  for,  and  is 
content  to  take.  It  is  not  for  me  to  decide  whether 
it  is  good  or  no."  In  the  Providence  of  God,  in  the 
working  of  the  command  and  the  desire  to  live,  you 
are  your  brother's  keeper.  And  as  surely  as  you 
would  be  to  blame  if  you  were  a  physician,  and  gave 
in  to  the  disordered  appetites  of  a  body  and  a  soul 
diseased ;  as  surely  as  you  would  be  to  blame  if  you 
let  your  ignorant  child  climb  the  cliff,  or  plunge  into 
the  river,  where  he  would  meet  his  death ;  so  surely, 
if  you  knowingly  and  deliberately  live  by  giving  to 
your  brother-man  what  ministers  to  death,  and  not 
to  life,  his  blood  lies  at  your  door.  We  see  it  so,  do 
we  not  ?  But  do  we  see  it  of  all  the  poor,  weak, 
second-rate  stuff  with  which  we  impoverish  the  lives 
of  men,  with  which  we  mock  our  brother's  need, 
while  we  take  care  to  satisfy  our  own  ?  "  It  is  good : " 
— that  is  what  God  said  of  His  provision  for  the  needs 
of  men.  "  It  is  good :  " — that  is  what  you  have  to  be 
able  to  say  of  your  work  by  which  you  live.  It  is 
good  in  kind ;  it  helps  towards  life,  and  not  towards 


COMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  59 

death.  And,  further,  it  is  good  in  quality;  it  is  not 
like  a  broken  reed  to  lean  on,  or  a  roof  that  will  not 
keep  out  wind  and  weather ;  it  is  sound,  and  strong, 
and  good  of  its  kind ;  it  is  such  as  you  would  have 
yourself  for  your  own  need. 

At  least,  and  last  of  all,  it  is  your  best ;  the  best 
that  you  can  do  to  help,  in  your  own  ap-  jj^j^stbe 
pointed  way,  the  lives  of  other  men.  On  ^"""^  ^^''  - 
the  one  side  here,  in  you,  is  this  strong  striving  after 
life.  Who  shall  say  what  it  can  absorb  ;  who  shall  say 
what  more  it  can  desire,  if  it  be  fed  and  tended  truly 
and  well,  if  it  be  not  choked  and  stupefied  with  pro- 
vision of  evil  ?  And  beyond,  over  against  you,  there 
are  these  same  desires  in  other  men.  Towards  them 
let  your  whole  soul  go  out.  In  serving  them  let  your 
whole  self  be  spent,  for  this  is  life,  the  fruitfulness  of 
love.  If  you  lived  by  your  own  effort,  if  your  own 
sole  will  must  meet  the  needs  of  your  own  sole  desire, 
what  would  it  not  be  worth  to  live  indeed — to 
quicken  and  satisfy  to  the  full  all  your  capacities 
and  desires  ?  What  would  it  be  worth  ?  Not  half 
as  much  as  it  is  now,  to  live  indeed,  by  launching 
out  into  the  lives  of  men — your  brothers,  who  live 
and  work  for  you — your  whole  effort,  your  best  mind, 
and  knowledge,  and  purpose,  and  skill,  and  heart's 
desire. 


6o  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

Do  your  best.  You  may,  or  may  not  succeed,  as 
This  is  the  yc>u  now  count  success.  But,  at  least,  you 
the  command  "feed  the  high  tradition  of  the  world,  and 

to  live — to 

forSe  hd^*  leave  your  spirit  in  your  children's  breasts." 
of  men.  ^^^  -^  -^  ^^^  failuTC  ;  it  is  life.  Love  and 
good  will,  honest  and  true  work,  are  never  wasted, 
never  lost.  Let  there  be  no  reserve;  cast  them  out 
upon  your  world,  your  thought  and  power,  and  will 
and  heart ;  live  them  out,  let  them  go ;  they  will  find 
a  home,  and  make  storage  of  resources  in  the  hearts 
and  lives  of  men,  you  know  not  when,  you  know  not 
how.  Weak,  heartless,  mindless,  thoughtless  work 
is  waste.  Put  your  soul  into  what  you  do,  and  see 
that  it  be  such  that  you  can  put  your  soul  into  it. 
However  humble  be  your  place  in  the  economic  body, 
you  serve  the  life  of  men;  and  not  least  in  serving 
do  you  show  yourself  to  be  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  Who  was  among  men  as  he  that  serveth.  You 
deal  with  men  in  what  you  do,  and  at  every  turn 
there  is  room  for  vigorous  effort,  for  sincerity  and 
truth,  for  the  kindly  flash  of  soul  to  soul,  by  word 
and  glance.  Live  your  life  out  as  it  is.  Do  your 
best  with  it,  as  God  has  made  it,  as  men  have  made 
it,  as  you  yourself  have  made  it.  Never  fear.  "  Be 
fruitful  and  multiply,"  even  if  God  shall  give  you  to 
learn  that  the  law  of  fruitfulness  is  life  through  death. 


COMPETITION,  THE  LAW  OF  LIFE.  6i 

and  that  "  that  which  thou  sowest  is  not  quickened, 
except  it  die."  It  may  be  that  the  body  and  soul  in 
which  you  live,  the  heart  and  mind  and  will  are 
stained  and  scarred,  bound  and  paralyzed  by  wrongs 
to  men,  false  service,  cruel  sins.  There  was  One 
once  Who  said,  "I  am  the  Life,"  Who  came  that 
we  might  have  life,  the  saving  law  of  Whose  Divine 
descent  into  our  world  of  death  was  this:  ''I  come 
to  do  Thy  Will,  0  God."  He  carried  through  life  to 
the  Cross  the  sins  of  all  mankind.  He  made  there 
upon  the  Cross  the  great  repentance  of  mankind, 
ending  so  the  life  of  which  they  said,  "  He  went  about 
doing  good."  Ending  ?  Not  ending.  That  death  to 
sin  was  but  the  door  of  new  life  from  which  that 
same  power  to  do  good  should  issue  triumphant,  to 
work  at  large  throughout  the  world  in  every  soul 
that  gives  itself  to  Him.  To  some  men,  more  plainly 
than  to  others,  the  command  to  live  which  Christ 
obeyed  when  He  lived  out  His  life  to  death  upon 
the  Cross,  has  to  be  obeyed  by  repentance  that  is 
like  a  death,  and,  like  His  death,  leads  to  a  new  life. 
But  for  all  men  alike  the  command  to  live  leads  in 
the  last  resort  to  the  command  to  love,  to  die  to  self, 
to  live  for  other  men  the  life  of  sacrifice,  the  life  of  self- 
devotion,  rising  to  new  powers,  to  the  light  and  glory  of 
the  life  of  those  "  whose  life  is  hid  with  Christ  in  God." 


III. 

JUSTICE,   THE    LAW    OF    EXCHANGE. 

"  Thou  knowest  the  commandments, ...  Do  not  steal, .  .  .  Defraud 
not."— S.  Mark  x.  19. 

The  first  command  under  which  we  live  is  the  com- 
The  society  mand  to  live  itself — that  creative  command 
serve  the       which  Called  man  into  bein^,  and  bade  him 

needs  of  life  ^' 

ihan^Tand   "  ^^  fniltful  and  multiply."     That  command 

so  brings  us  i        •        xi.       v     •  j?  •        i 

under  tTie      spcaks  iH  the  Deuig  01  every  single  man,  m 

command  to 

be  just.  the  necessity,  which  is  both  a  desire  and  a 
duty,  to  provide  for  his  own  existence.  In  the  work- 
ings of  God's  Providence,  this  need,  this  desire,  which 
is  a  virtual  command,  to  live,  has  led  to  the  growth 
of  the  vast  system  of  combined  and  divided  labour 
in  and  by  which  we  do  live.  It  has  built  up  a  great 
society  to  satisfy  the  needs  of  life.  We  may  well  be 
asked  in  our  dealings  one  with  another,  to  be  true  to 
the  purpose  which  has  brought  us  together — the  pur- 
pose to  provide  for  life ;  to  see  to  it  that  we  follow  out 


JUSTICE,    THE  LAW  OF  EXCHANGE.  63 

the  spirit  of  this  social  system,  by  which  alone  our 
own  desire  for  life  is  satisfied  and  filled.  But  when 
once  we  recognize  that  the  command  to  live,  which 
we  know  as  a  strong  and  irresistible  desire  in  our 
own  souls,  has  brought  us  into  these  close  relations 
with  our  fellows,  we  hear  the  voice  of  a  fresh  com- 
mand claiming  to  govern,  at  the  cost  of  any  sacrifice 
of  desire  and  of  life,  all  that  we  do  one  to  another — the 
command  to  be  just.  We  are  members  of  a  vast  society 
for  the  production  of  the  necessities  and  comforts  and 
pleasures  of  life,  but  this  membership  means  a  con- 
stant give  and  take  between  one  man  and  another ; 
this  society  lives  upon  exchange  of  one  man's  work 
against  another,  and  the  law  of  exchange  is,  Be  just. 

It  is  on  this  aspect,  then,  of  the  system  by  which 
we  live,  that  I  wish  now  to  dwell,  that  it  „,., 

Wider  and 

is  a  system  of  exchange.  This  is  pre-  X^J^^i' 
eminently  and  obviously  true  of  this  one  ^"^^'^^* 
part  of  our  life,  of  the  system  by  which  we  all,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  support  the  existence  of  the  body. 
Here,  plainly,  the  system  by  which  we  do  live  is  a 
system  of  exchange,  calling  for  the  exercise  of  justice. 
But  it  may  be  well  to  note  that  there  is  a  wider 
sense,  in  which  it  is  true  to  say  that  life  is  an  ex- 
change, indicated  by  the  double  meaning  of  the  word 
*' justice"  itself      We  call  a  man  just,  who,  in  the 


64  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

ordinary  matters  of  business  and  commerce,  gives  a 
fair  return  for  what  he  gets.  But  we  say  also  that 
*'  the  just  shall  live  by  faith ;  "  we  seek  to  be  justified, 
or  made  just  by  God ;  we  speak  of  Christ,  *'  Who  died 
the  Just  for  the  unjust ; "  and  here  we  are  dealing 
with  awider  justice,  which  is  co-extensive  with  virtue, 
and  reaches  up  to  holiness  itself  The  duty  of  justice, 
in  the  narrower  sense  of  giving  a  fair  return  for  what 
we  get,  is  important  enough ;  but  it  gains  dignity 
when  we  see  that  it  is  this  duty  which  gives  the 
name  to  the  complete  fulfilment  of  all  duty ;  that  it 
is  a  quality  of  no  narrow  range,  confined  to  the 
sordid  means  of  earthly  life,  but  that  it  grows  and 
expands  with  every  spiritual  advance  of  man,  and  is 
never  left  behind — not  when  we  deal  with  the 
relations  of  man  to  God,  not  even  when  we  strive 
to  apprehend  the  nature  of  God  Himself  The 
narrower  virtue  of  justice,  the  justice  of  fair  dealing 
in  the  give  and  take  of  trade,  is  connected,  not  merely 
by  a  common  name,  with  the  attribute  of  God.  It 
is  as  though  men  began  by  living  within  themselves, 
each  in  their  own  small  plot,  from  which  they  gained 
their  life ;  and  then  learnt  by  need  to  depend  one  on 
another,  to  work  together,  to  live  by  exchange  of  the 
means  of  life  ;  and  then  found  that  this  exchange  was 
the  body  of  a  higher  and  nobler  soul,  the  exchange 


JUSTICE,    THE  LAW  OF  EXCHANGE.  65 

of  mind  and  will,  of  affection  and  love  ;  and  then 
saw  how,  in  all  this,  man  was  dealing  with  another 
member  in  the  irreat  exchanoje  of  life — with  Him  from 
Whom  he  receives  all  things,  and  to  Whom  he  must 
render  back  himself.  Is  it  not  true  ?  Is  not  marriage 
an  exchange — life  for  life  ?  Are  not  the  relations  of 
father  and  mother  and  son  an  exchange,  each  with 
endless  possibilities  of  wrong,  each  the  sphere  of  a 
justice  which  even  love  can  never  leave  behind  ? 
I  do  not  believe  we  can  find  any  region  of  our  life 
at  all,  in  which  this  does  not  come  as  a  supreme  and 
vital  question — Have  I  given  the  fair  return  for  what 
I  have  received  ?  Certainly  we  do  not  leave  it  behind 
in  our  relations  to  God.  When  it  pleased  Him  to  take 
the  first  step  in  the  history  of  the  revelation  of  Himself 
in  Christ,  He  revealed  Himself — ^how  ?  In  a  covenant, 
in  a  contract ;  as  though  He  would  say,  "  This  is  the 
fundamental  law  of  My  Being  ;  this  is  the  truth  about 
Me  which  you  must  learn  once  for  all,  and  must  never 
forget.  I  am  He  Who  makes  a  fair  bargain,  and  keeps 
it;  I  am  Just."  When  we  shall  reach  the  last  con- 
summation of  our  hope  in  Christ,  we  shall  have 
realized  for  ever  the  Eternal  Exchange — God  in  us, 
and  we  in  Him. 

It   is   this   same  quality   which   rules  our  conduct 
in   the   common   exchange   of  material   and   earthly 

F 


65  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

things  in  daily  life.     "Thou  knowest  the  command- 
^   ^  ments,  .  ,  .  Defraud  not."    This  vast  system 

Exchange  "^ 

science'into  ^^  iudustry  and  commerce  by  which  we  live, 
has  grown  up  in  obedience  to  the  dictates  of 
the  desire  of  life.  The  combined  action  and  pressure 
of  this  strong  craving  for  life — life  more  intense,  more 
joyous,  more  complete — has  called  the  system  into 
being,  in  accordance  with  which  we  provide,  not  each 
for  our  own  lives,  but  each  for  the  lives  of  others,  and 
exchange  the  produce  of  our  work.  But  when  this 
result  has  come  about,  and  when  I  stand  face  to  face 
with  my  brother-man,  he  and  I  to  live  by  giving  and 
taking  each  the  produce  of  the  labour  of  the  other, 
there  is  a  new  force  called  into  play.  The  interchange 
of  life  has  forced  us  to  find  common  ground ;  the 
desire  to  live,  the  original  motive,  the  original  com- 
mand of  God  implanted  in  the  nature  of  man,  is  still 
there ;  and  by  the  side  of  it,  and  above  it,  there  rises 
a  new  command,  a  new  desire — the  desire  to  live 
rightly.  Conscience  has  come  into  play.  This  blind, 
strong  passion  for  life,  which  is  the  first  great  motive 
force  at  work  in  all  the  economic  system,  centred  in 
every  individual  soul,  finds  that  there  arises  out  of  the 
very  heart  of  it,  when  man  is  face  to  face  with  man 
in  the  exchange  by  which  each  feeds  his  need,  a  new 
and  authoritative  desire,  which  says,  "You  must  do 


JUSTICE,    THE  LAW  OF  EXCHANGE.  67 

right."  This  is  what  conscience  is — the  instinctive 
recognition,  when  the  spirit  of  man  finds  itself  face 
to  face  with  the  spirit  of  another  man,  or  with  the 
Spirit  of  God,  that  there  is  a  bond,  an  "  ought,"  which 
binds  his  action,  and  to  which  desire  must  yield.  It  is 
a  revelation  from  within ;  it  rises  up  at  the  first  touch 
of  common  life.  That  blind  desire  for  life  did  not 
know  where  it  was  leading  us,  when  it  forced  us,  by 
sheer  need,  to  live  each  by  the  labour  of  others  ;  it  was 
leading  us  before  a  judgment  seat.  From  the  sight  of 
that  judge  we  shall  never  escape,  when  we  have  once 
learnt  that  man,  to  live  at  all,  must  live  a  social  life, 
nor  from  the  hearing  of  the  voice  that  says,  '*  You 
ought,"  or  "  You  ought  not."  I  state  this  here  simply 
as  a  general  fact.  I  appeal  to  your  own  experience. 
Man  is,  in  fact,  no  isolated  thing,  no  unit  of  merely 
selfish  desire.  But,  assuming  this  desire  for  the  service 
of  one's  own  life  as  the  first  force — as  the  command 
from  God  to  live  is  the  first  command — I  ask  you  to 
see  that,  as  a  matter  of  fact  and  of  inner  experience, 
each  of  us,  living  as  we  do  by  constant  exchange 
with  our  fellow-men,  finds  that  this  life  cannot  be 
lived  in  mere  obedience  to  the  desire  to  live,  and  to 
live  as  best  we  can;  but  there  is  heard  within  us 
another  voice,  a  voice  that  says,  "  You  must  do  right." 
To  live,  you  must  profit  by  the  labour  of  others :  to 


68  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

profit  by  the  labour  of  others,  you  raust  exchange,  you 
must  give  in  return  for  what  you  take.  Give  what  ? 
I  claim  that  there  is  a  voice  within  every  one  of  us 
which  says,  "  Give  what  is  just." 

Why  does  conscience  come  in  here,  where  the  social 
character  of  life  begins?  What  does  it  mean  by 
"just"?  Who  is  to  determine  what  it  means?  and 
by  appeal  to  what  authority  ?  All  these  are  further 
questions.  First,  let  us  take  the  fact,  conscience  is 
here,  and  in  all  the  exchange  of  life  does  say,  "  In 
return  for  what  you  take,  give  what  is  just."  I  say, 
insist  on  the  fact,  because  the  fact  is  virtually  chal- 
lensred,  and  we  must  meet  the  challencre.    All 

in  the  field  .  .  ^ 

S'Ecc^'Jlm  ^^^^  P^^^  ^^  ^^^  ^^^^ — ^^  system  of  combined 
and  divided  labour,  the  sj^stem  of  exchange 
by  which  we  support  our  bodily  existence — has  been 
for  many  years  matter  of  discussion  in  books,  under 
the  name  of  Political  Economy.  This  science  describes, 
for  instance,  here,  how  exchange  does  take  place,  how 
prices  and  wages,  and  interest  and  rent  are  fixed.  It 
does  not  profess  to  say  what  price  or  what  wages 
ought  to  be  paid ;  it  only  tells  you  how  to  determine 
what  will  be  paid.  Only,  if  there  is  an  iron  system 
according  to  which  it  will  be  determined  what  price 
shall  be  given  for  what  commodities,  and  what  reward 
for  what  services,  it  does  not  seem  to  be  much  use  our 


JUSTICE,    THE  LAW  OF  EXCHANGE.  69 

asking,  "  What  is  just  ? "  or  "  What  ought  to  be  paid  ? " 
And  so  the  scientific  account  of  the  matter,  which  has 
become,  in  one  shape  or  another,  matter  of  common 
knowledge,  colouring,  I  will  venture  to  say,  the 
thoughts  and  opinions  and  practice  of  all  of  us — 
the  scientific  account  of  the  matter  does  present  a 
virtual  challenge  to  the  claim  of  conscience  to  deter- 
mine what  we  ought  to  do  in  these  particular  matters 
of  duty  between  man  and  man.  But  I  think  I  can  show 
you  that  there  is  no  real  challenge  involved  in  the 
teaching  of  economic  science  on  the  matter.  The  only 
mistake  is,  that  perhaps  we  have  not  let  our  consciences, 
each  in  our  own  sphere,  have  their  say  as  to  what 
we  ought  to  do,  and,  consequently,  the  rule  of  what  is 
done  has  slid  into  the  place  of  the  rule  of  what  ought 
to  be  done ;  and  the  rule  of  what  is  done  is  not  so 
near  the  rule  of  what  ought  to  be  done  as  it  is  our 
business  to  make  it. 

Well,  then,  the  means  by  which  price  or  wages, 
or  any  return  in  the  give  and  take  of  economic  life  is 
fixed,  are  these :  On  the  one  side,  the  service  done,  the 
commodity  or  useful  thing  produced,  must  be  repaid 
with  the  equivalent  of  what  it  took  to  produce  it ;  on 
the  other  side,  a  man  will  be  content,  if  he  can,  to  give 
for  the  service  or  the  commodity  the  equivalent  of 
what  it  is  worth  to  him,  in  comparison  with  other 


70  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

services  or  other  commodities  which  he  needs  for  the 
support  or  enjoyment  of  life.  On  this  side  the  price 
is  fixed  bjT"  the  exact  estimate  on  the  part  of  a  number 
of  buyers,  who  are  able  to  buy  at  the  cost  it  takes  to 
produce  the  thing,  of  the  comparative  usefulness  of 
this  and  other  things  :  on  the  other  side  by  the  exact 
estimate  on  the  part  of  a  number  of  sellers  of  what 
it  will  take  to  repay  them  for  the  trouble  of  producing 
the  thing.  I  need  not  follow  out  how  these  forces 
work.  Plainly  they  are  the  forces  that  fix  what  is 
paid.  What  will  the  people  who  buy  think  it  worth 
while  to  give  ?  What  will  the  people  who  sell  think 
it  worth  while  to  take  ?  The  only  point  to  which  I 
wish  to  call  your  attention,  is  this.  On  either  side 
there  enters  into  the  force  that  fixes  what  is  paid,  a 
man's  estimate  of  what  is  to  be  paid.  It  is  not  the 
estimate  of  one  man,  I  know;  it  is  the  estimate  of 
many :  but  multitudes  are  made  of  individuals,  and 
common  standards  are  the  outcome  of  individual 
standards.  And,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  within  the 
memory  of  living  men,  the  standard  of  what  is  the 
comparative  usefulness  to  men  of  this  or  that  com- 
modity, the  standard  of  what  is  fair  repayment  of 
the  pains  that  it  takes  to  produce  the  things  we  need, 
has  altered.  Why  has  it  altered  ?  Because,  one  by 
one,  men  have  learnt  to  change  their  estimate.    And  I 


JUSTICE,    THE  LAW  OF  EXCHANGE.  71 

maintain  that,  in  the  laws  which  fix  what  shall  be  paid, 
you  will  never  find  any  force  said  to  be  at  work  into 
which  the  minds  and  wills  and  consciences  of  men  do 
not  enter.  The  force  is  the  common  will  of  these  units. 
Well,  then,  I  claim  that  conscience  is  not  excluded ; 
that  its  authority  is  challenged  only  in  the  and  leaves 

,_,,..,_,  .  open  to  con- 

sense  that  rolitical  Economy  cries  aloud  to  science; 

it,   "Here  is   your  field."      If  the  laws  of  Political 

Economy  are  iron,  it  is  because  men  are  iron ;  the 

laws   are    only   statements   of  how   men   do   act   as 

matter   of  fact.      *'0h,   but   we   shall   never   change 

the  ways  in  which  men  act ! "     What  shall  I  answer  ? 

"When  the  Son  of  man  cometh,  shall  He  find  faith 

on  the  earth  ? "     Or  shall  I  say,  rather,  "  You  have 

changed  them "  ?     The  common  conscience  is  keener 

and   more  awake,  and   has  a  higher  standard  than 

it  used  to  have,  and  our  economic  life  is  more  just, 

in  consequence.     It  is  a  vast  work.     Of  course  it  is. 

It   is  life — nothing   less — to  strive   by  the   best  we 

can   do,  each   in   our   own   sphere,  to   lift  the   lives 

of  men.      Have   faith   in   the   individual   conscience 

and  will ;  they  are  the  voice  and  the  power  of  God. 

It  is  through  these  you  see  that  He  rules  this  economic 

world.     Each   individual  can  do  little,  though  some 

individuals  can  do  much.     But  each  individual  can 

do  something.     It  is  of  grains  of  sand  that  continents 


72  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

are  built.     Each  individual  can  say,  "To  the  best  of 
my  lights  I  will  be  just." 

"I  will  be  just."     Let  us  look  now  what  it  means. 
I  have  in  me,  from  God,  the   command    to 

and  con- 

mindTjus-"''  ^^^®^  implanted  as  a  deep  desire  in  my  soul. 
It  leads  me  to  depend  on  others ;  the  sheer 
need  of  individual  life  leads  me  to  social  life,  leads 
me  to  see  that  I  am  not,  I  do  not  exist  as,  I  cannot 
live  as,  a  mere  unit.  I  am  part  and  parcel  with 
this  man  over  against  me.  From  him  I  am  to  get 
what  I  need  ;  from  me  he  gets  what  he  needs.  What 
shall  determine,  then,  what  I  give  for  what  ?  What 
should  determine,  but  that  common  soul  which  makes 
us  have  a  common  need,  which  makes  us  able  to 
combine  to  attain  it  ?  What  should  determine,  but 
some  voice  of  this  body  to  which  it  turns  out,  in  the 
working  of  the  need  of  life,  we  both  belong  ?  And  this 
is  conscience,  the  voice  of  the  common  soul,  the  voice 
of  the  Universal  Mind,  the  voice  of  God,  "in  Whom  we 
live  and  move  and  have  our  being,"  the  voice  of  Him 
in  Whom  we  are  "  members  one  of  another." 

And  this  voice  says,  "  Be  just."     What  does  justice 
mean  ?     Justice   is,  first,  an  interchancre  of 

which  is  ^ 

chlnge?^"  good.     Exchange  is  a  feature  in  the  system 
^°°  '  by  which  we  combine  to  live.     The  whole 

reason   of  it   is   that   it   feeds,  it  ministers   to   life. 


JUSTICE,    THE  LAW  OF  EXCHANGE.  73 

Its  spirit,  then,  is  the  spirit  of  good  will.  We 
meet  for  a  common  good,  I  and  the  man  with 
whom  I  have  to  agree.  We  do  not  meet  as  enemies. 
Unless  the  exchange  is  to  be  an  exchange  of  good,  its 
whole  purpose  is  gone.  We  come  into  it,  not  with  a 
grudging  sense  of  necessity,  but  gladly  welcoming  a 
help.  We  are  stronger,  richer,  wiser,  because  we  can 
combine  to  exchange.  We  live  a  thousand  lives  in 
one,  because  our  life  is  not  shut  within  the  narrow 
barriers  of  our  personal  power  to  provide.  We  are 
the  gainers;  we  come  to  meet  the  man  who  brings 
our  gain.  The  fruit  of  this  system  of  exchange  be- 
tween you  and  me  comes  from  three  sources — your 
force,  and  my  force,  and  the  force  of  our  combination. 
The  combination  itself  is  a  good ;  it  is  a  multiplying, 
an  enriching  power ;  and  you  who,  as  simply  you, 
are  but  another  unit  in  the  world  besides  myself, 
as  the  person  with  whom  I  am  to  exchange,  come  to 
me  clothed  in  this  character  of  blessing — you  bring 
to  me,  and  I  to  you,  the  gain  and  strength  of  union. 
And  the  union  is  not  only  the  source  and  multiplying 
power  of  good ;  it  is  itself  a  good.  We  break  out  of 
the  dismal  toil  of  solitary  lives,  through  this  social 
act  of  exchange,  into  a  world  of  sympathy  and  fellow- 
ship. So,  then,  we  meet,  if  we  know  what  we  are 
about,  in  the  spirit  of  good  will.      It  is  impossible 


74  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

to  insist  on  this  too  much,  it  is  impossible  to  exag- 
gerate the  fruits  which  will  follow — fruits  material 
and  spiritual — in  any  individual  life,  in  which  a  man 
chooses  to  lay  this  down  as  the  principle  on  which 
he  Avill  always  act — "  Wlierever  I  have  dealings  with 
man,  we  will  meet,  so  far  as  lies  in  me,  in  the  spirit 
of  good  will.  It  is  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  moral 
and  material  mischief  which  has  followed  because  of 
the  effect  made  on  the  imaginations  of  men  by  the 
common  picture  of  the  economic  world,  as  a  world 
in  which  my  hand  is  against  every  man,  and  every 
man's  hand  against  me."  It  will  often  cost  you  stern 
spiritual  struggles  to  insist  on  this  standard  with 
yourself — that  you  meet  every  man  with  whom  you 
have  to  do  in  the  spirit  of  mutual  good  will.  But 
every  day  you  do  it,  you  will  have  made  one  step 
more  towards  learning  what  the  Apostle  meant  when 
he  said,  "Ye  have  the  mind  of  Christ."  This,  then, 
is  the  first  step — ^just  men  meet  as  those  who  are 
interchanging  good. 

The  next   step   in  justice   is   this :    The   standard 
(2) according  o£  a  just   cxchangc    is   mutual    agreement. 

to  mutual 

agreement;  Justlcc  is  mutually  agreed  upon  interchange 
of  good.  I  have  said  that  exchange,  because  it  is  the 
discover}^  that  we  have  a  common,  not  a  separated 
life,   necessarily   involves   the   appeal   to   a    common 


JUSTICE,    THE  LA  IV  OF  EXCHANGE.  75 

Standard.  Because  the  organ  wliicli  declares  this 
standard  is  in  each,  exchange,  to  be  just,  to  conform 
to  this  standard,  must  be  matter  of  mutual  agree- 
ment. When  God  made  that  first  revelation  of  His 
justice  to  Abraham,  of  which  we  have  already  spoken, 
He  made  a  covenant.  And  in  a  covenant,  what  is 
given  and  taken  on  either  side,  the  interchange  of 
good,  is  open  and  declared,  as  ths  result  of  agree- 
ment. This  is,  in  fact,  the  character  of  justice,  the 
character  of  the  fair  man — that  I  should  do,  not 
merely  what  I  think  to  be  fair  towards  another,  but 
what  I  have  good  reason  to  believe  he  and  I  would 
both  think  to  be  fair.  When  do  we  appeal  to  law  to 
step  in  between  us  ?  When  the  one  man  has  done 
what  he  thinks  right,  but  the  other  does  not  think  it 
right ;  when  the  one  man  has  done  what  he  does  not 
consider  to  be  against  the  contract,  actual  or  implied, 
but  the  other  does  consider  it  to  be  against  the  contract. 
What  is  the  kind  of  injustice  which  excites  our 
highest  indignation  ?  Is  it  not  w^hen  a  man  has  made 
an  agreement  with  us,  knowing  that  he  made  it  in 
one  sense  and  w^e  understood  it  in  another  ? 

Nevertheless,  it  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  do  to  live 
by  this  standard.  Even  if  w^e  never  felt  inclined  to 
dispute  the  principle — and  we  do — it  is  very  difficult 
to  apply  it  thoroughly  and  consistently  in  practice. 


76  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

In  the  complex  and  intricate  system  of  division  of 
labour  by  which  we  live,  mutual  agreement  in  fact  on 
a  thousand  essential  matters  of  detail  is  impossible. 
If  I  go  into  a  shop  to  buy  any  commodity,  I  have 
of  sheer  necessity  to  trust  the  man  of  whom  I  buy 
to  know  for  me,  in  a  number  of  important  details, 
what  is  the  kind  of  article  which  I  ought  to  be 
content  to  take  at  the  price.  He  knows  his  business ; 
I  don't  know  his  business.  The  just  man  will  make 
it  the  business  of  his  conscience  to  see  that  he  and 
I  both — not  he  alone,  but  he  and  I  both — are  the 
gainers  by  his  knowing  the  business  of  his  trade. 
It  is  not  you  to  judge,  and  I  to  judge,  and,  when 
we  differ,  another  judge  to  be  called  in.  That  other 
judge  sits  in  your  soul  and  in  mine.  We  may  not 
listen  to  his  voice,  but  we  cannot  blind  his  eyes. 

And  we  do  feel  disposed  to  dispute  the  principle, 
that  what  is  mutually  agreed  upon  is  just,  from 
this  same  reason.  We  say,  "  A  man  might  not  think 
himself  well-used  if  he  knew  what  it  was  I  was 
giving  him  for  his  money;  but  he  does  not  know 
my  business  or  its  difficulties ;  he  couldn't  judge. 
I,  and  I  alone,  can  know  and  decide."  That  is 
anything  else  you  like,  but  it  is  not  justice.  It 
may  be  the  fruit  of  a  system  which  is  very  hard 
to    fight    against    and    change.      And    in    fighting 


JUSTICE,    THE  LA  IV  OF  EXCHANGE.  77 

against  it  you  may  have  to  make  sacrifices  to 
justice.  If  you  have,  face  them  and  fear  not ; 
but  hold,  at  least,  by  this — that  you  will  never  let 
yourself  profess  to  judge  by  yourself,  and  without 
brinojino:  into  the  court  of  conscience  the  best  advo- 
cate  you  can  for  the  cause  of  your  neighbour.  Or, 
again,  we  feel  disposed  to  dispute  the  principle  be- 
cause a  man  is  prejudiced  and  wrong-headed;  he 
compels  us  to  take  the  law  into  our  own  hands. 
Well,  if  you  are  ever  prejudiced  and  wrong-headed — 
and  you  must  contemplate  the  possibility — and  have 
to  look  back  on  some  dispute  in  which  you  must 
acknowledge  that  it  was  so,  and  that  a  plain  and 
ordinary  agreement  w^ith  you  was  out  of  the  question, 
how  will  the  man  have  acted  towards  you,  of  whom 
you  will  say,  "That  man  was  just.  I  provoked  him, 
but  he  kept  his  head,  and  he  kept  his  heart  straight, 
and  I  was  not  really  the  loser "  ?  That  is  the  test. 
Act  so. 

And  difficulties  like  these  occur,  not  only  between 
individual  men,  but  between  classes  of  men — between 
different  branches  of  a  trade,  or  different  trades,  or 
between  employers  and  labourers,  or  lenders  and 
borrowers.  And  here,  more  than  ever,  cases  arise  in 
which  your  individual  conscience,  or  that  collective 
conscience  of  this  trade  or  other  body  to  which  you 


78  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

belong,  has  to  be  trustee  for  the  other  party  in  a 
mutual  agreement.  Wherever,  for  instance,  there  are 
questions  of  what  is  just  between  the  different  classes, 
whom  the  rapid  commercial  development  of  the  last 
hundred  years  has  estranged  from  any  real  know- 
ledge of  each  others'  life,  what  a  responsibility  lies 
upon  the  man  who  has  to  say,  "  So  far  I  will  go,  and 
no  further ;  so  much  I  will  demand  of  life  and  com- 
fort and  ease  as  my  claim  and  share,  so  much  I  will 
allow  as  his  "  !  Well,  there  the  responsibility  does  lie, 
upon  each  party  to  the  settlement,  to  see  to  it  that, 
so  far  as  he  is  concerned,  the  settlement  is  such  as 
both  would  agree  upon  if  all  was  open  and  the 
barriers  were  down.  You  cannot  change  the  collec- 
tive judgment  of  your  profession  or  your  trade  all 
at  once ;  but  do  what  you  can,  and  keep  the  end  in 
view.  And  if  we  are  to  do  what  we  can  to  forward 
the  cause  of  justice,  and  to  spread  the  rule  of  God, 
let  us,  at  least,  love  the  daylight,  not  the  dark. 
Let  us  work  for  open  ways.  Justice  is  at  home  in 
daylight.  Here,  and  here  alone,  can  mutual  agree- 
ment be  absolute  and  real,  where  there  is  nothing 
concealed  or  to  conceal.  Every  step  towards  mutual 
knowledge  on  the  part  of  the  different  members  of 
the  economic  body  of  the  real  life,  and  needs,  and 
methods,  and  diflSculties,  and  temptations  of  the  rest, 


JUSTICE,    THE  LAW  OF  EXCHANGE.  79 

is  a  step  towards  the  recognition  and  the  reality  of 
that  justice  between  man  and  man,  which  is  the 
establishment  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  upon  earth. 

But,  after  all,  it  may  be  asked,  in  all  these  matters 
between  man  and  man,  where  is  the  standard  (3)  of  con- 
to  be  found  ?    Mutual  ao^reement  is  the  method  which  knows 

°  the  Mind  of 

by  which  it  is  to  be  found ;  but  where  is  either  ^°'^- 
my  conscience  or  my  neighbour's  to  look  for  it  ?  and 
what  likelihood  is  there  that  we  shall  agree,  that  we 
shall  look  for  it  or  find  it  in  the  same  place  ?  The 
answer  to  this  question  is  the  very  soul  and  substance 
of  what  I  have  to  say.  There  is  no  standard  of 
justice  outside  justice  itself.  Would  you  find  it  ? — 
find  God,  Who  is  the  Just  One.  How  shall  you  find 
Him  and  His  justice  ? — through  your  conscience,  and 
your  neighbour's,  which  He  has  set  to  be  the  voices 
of  His  justice  here  in  earth.  Do  you  ask  what  is, 
in  fact  and  substance,  just  between  man  and  man, 
between  class  and  class  ?  For  you  the  answer  lies  in 
what  your  conscience  will  tell  you  to-morrow,  and 
the  next  day,  and  the  day  after — till  you  die,  and  the 
record  is  written  with  which  you  shall  stand  before 
the  judgment-seat  of  Christ.  God's  Law  and  God's 
Will  are  the  standard.  Justice  is  the  Mind  of  God. 
Justice  is  what  your  conscience  tells  you  to  be  just, 
because  you  were  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  are 


So  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

renewed  by  Christ  in  the  image  in  which  you  were 
created;  and  this  image  and  likeness  is,  that  you 
know  and  love  what  is  good,  and  see  and  abhor  what 
is  evil.  Day  by  day,  and  year  by  year,  and  century 
by  century,  as  the  ages  pass,  God  writes  in  the  hearts 
and  lives,  and  builds  up  in  the  laws  and  institutions 
of  men,  so  much  of  that  Eternal  Mind,  of  that  Eternal 
Good,  which  He  Himself,  in  His  own  Essence,  is — so 
much  as  these  single  souls  will  let  Him,  on  Whom  rests 
yesterday,  or  to-morrow,  or  to-day,  the  trust  of  the 
oracles  of  God. 

Where  shall  justice  be  found  ?  It  shall  be  found  in 
God,  through  Christ,  by  souls  who  will  look  and 
anxiously  discern  between  good  and  evil,  between 
right  and  wrong,  till  the  diviner  vision  grows  in  the 
inner  eye  of  the  soul,  and  you  begin  to  guess  what 
He  meant  when  He  said  that  you  shall  know  as  you 
are  known. 

This  is  no  imaginary  answer,  it  is  no  trick  or  artifice 
of  argument.  "  The  just  shall  live  by  faith ; "  and  shall 
not  they  that  live  by  faith,  by  faith  be  just  ?  Meet 
your  neighbour  in  this  spirit.  You  meet  for  good — 
for  his  and  yours ;  you  meet,  at  every  minute  of  the 
day,  in  every  shade  of  expression  on  your  face,  and 
in  every  tone  of  your  voice,  which  plays  its  part  in 
the  transactions  of  life,  to  find  by  the  joint  efforts  of 


8i 

that  organ  of  the  Divine  Mind  which  is  in  each,  the 
justice  which — here  and  now,  in  this  bargain  that  you 
strike,  in  the  promise  which  you  make  and  keep,  in 
the  price,  the  wage,  you  demand,  receive,  or  pay — 
becomes  a  fact,  an  actual  living  visible  embodiment, 
here  before  the  eyes  of  men,  of  the  eternal  glory  of 
God. 

"  Thou  knowest  the  commandments."  Long  ago  they 
were  written  on  the  stones  of  Sinai.  Far,  far  away 
before  that,  when,  in  the  eternal  counsels  of  God,  it 
was  decreed  that  man  should  be  made  in  that  image 
in  which  God  should  be  made  Man,  it  was  decreed 
that  they  should  be  written,  too,  in  the  fleshy  tables 
of  the  heart  of  every  man  that  should  live  upon  the 
earth.  The  writing  is  blurred,  is  it,  in  you  ?  The 
healing  Hand  of  Christ  upon  your  soul  will  make  it 
plain.  You  shall  hear  the  voice  if  you  will  listen ; 
you  shall  be  renewed  in  His  likeness  if  you  will  use 
His  grace.  He  shall  say  to  jou,  in  words  that  you 
cannot  mistake,  "  This  is  the  way ;  walk  ye  in  it,"  and 
you  shall  know  that  this  God  is  your  God  for  ever 
and  ever,  and  that  He  will  be  your  guide  until  death. 


IV. 
LOVE,  THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION. 

"  Beloved,  let  us  love  one  another." — 1  John  iv.  7. 

"  There  was  a  certain  rich  man,  which  was  clothed 
The  facts  in  purplc  and  fine  linen,  and  fared  sumptu- 
richand  ously  cvcry  day:  and  there  was  a  certain 
side.  beggar  named  Lazarus,  which  was  laid  at  his 

gate,  full  of  sores,  and  desiring  to  be  fed  with  the 
crumbs  which  fell  from  the  rich  man's  table."  That  is 
the  first  picture — the  rich  man  and  the  poor  man  side 
by  side.  We  all  know  the  picture  which  follows — the 
companion  picture  of  the  rich  man  and  the  poor  man, 
with  the  great  gulf  between.  What  was  the  rich 
man's  sin  ?  He  is  not  described  as  doing  anything 
wrong.  The  words  of  our  English  translation  are,  if 
anything,  a  little  hard  on  him.  We  may  say  that  all 
we  know  about  him  is  this — he  was  beautifully 
dressed,  he  lived  a  life  of  good  cheer,  bright,  brilliant, 
splendid.      There  is  no  hint  of  any  sin,  of  extrava- 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION.  83 

gance,  of  dishonesty,  of  excess,  of  gross  and  sensual 
passion.  Any  of  these  may  have  been  there,  but  we 
know  nothing  of  them ;  they  are  foreign  to  the  pur- 
pose of  his  story.  We  know  that  he  was  rich ;  that, 
in  his  dress,  he  liked  what  was  handsome  and  refined  ; 
that  he  lived  a  pleasant,  happy,  brilliant  life ;  and  this 
is  all.  No ;  there  is  one  thing  besides ;  there  was  the 
poor  man  at  his  gate,  and — no  more.  They  were  side 
by  side,  and  that  is  all ;  the  facts  are  left  to  speak  for 
themselves.  There  the  facts  are,  there  they  were  in 
our  Lord's  time,  and  there  they  are  still,  in  the 
industrial  society  of  to-day,  in  the  modern  city — 
the  poor  we  have  always  with  us.  Here  the  facts 
are — rich  and  poor  side  by  side ;  they  still  speak  for 
themselves.  It  is  those  to  whom  they  do  not  speak 
who  would  "not  hear,  though  one  rose  from  the 
dead." 

These  were  the  facts  set  out  in  this  immortal  picture. 
What  were  the  principles  He  meant  to  teach  ?  What 
was  the  rich  man's  sin  ?  The  only  thing  we  know 
against  him  is  purely  negative  ;  we  do  not  know  that 
he  cared  for  the  poor  at  his  door.  Would  he  have 
ceased,  do  you  think,  to  be  tormented  in  that  flame 
of  terrible  remorse,  if  he  could  have  remembered  that 
he  had  taken  pains  to  see  that  Lazarus  got  those 
crumbs  from  his  table  which  he  sat  and  longed  for  ? 


84  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

Is  this  the  teaching  of  the  facts — "Take  care  that 
the  leavings  of  your  luxury  find  their  way  to  those 
who  are  in  want "  ?  Do  you  think  it  was  to  teach  us 
this,  that  our  Lord  drew  this  terribly  simple  picture 
of  rich  and  poor  side  by  side  ? 

Rich  and  poor  side  by  side.  Economic  science  has 
analyzed  the  causes  which  produce  this  result,  and 
we  are  apt  to  come  away  with  the  idea  that  economic 
laws  produce  this  contrast  of  wealth  and  poverty 
side  by  side,  and  that  at  this  point,  where  the  rich 
man  sees  the  poor  man  at  his  gate,  Christian  charity 
should  come  in — charity  which  gives  the  crumbs. 

"  Law  "  is  sometimes  a  misleading  word.  The  eco- 
nomic laws  which  produce  this  result  are  laws  of  fact, 
not  laws  of  right.  They  state  that,  given  the  operation 
of  certain  motives  among  men,  certain  tendencies  will 
be  at  work,  and  the  issue  of  these  tendencies  is  in 
this  sharp  contrast  of  wealth  and  poverty.  The 
question  what  you  or  I  ought  to  do  brings  us  face 
to  face  with  quite  a  different  kind  of  law — the  law 
of  right,  which  is  a  part  of  the  very  nature  and 
being  of  God,  which  His  command  lays  upon  men, 
which  speaks  in  their  consciences  when  they  come 
face  to  face  with  the  facts  which  bring  it  into  play, 
wbich  speaks  in  law  and  prophecy,  to  arouse,  to 
awaken,  to  revive  the  voice  of  conscience  itself.     The 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION.  85 

laws  which  have  to  be  obeyed  are  the  laws  of  eternal 
right,  the  laws  of  conscience,  and  of  God. 

But  are  not  economic  laws  laws  of  God — the 
laws  by  which  He  governs  the  world  of  human  life, 
just  as  He  governs  the  physical  world  by  the  laws 
which  bring  the  rain-drops  from  the  sky,  and  carry 
them  down  in  rivers  to  the  sea  ?  Yes  ;  the  economic 
laws  which  produce  this  contrast  of  riches  and 
poverty  side  by  side,  are  Divine  laws — in  a  sense. 
These  natural  laws  we  think  it  wrong  not  to  coun- 
teract, when  they  do  not  work  for  human  health 
and  happiness.  We  drain  the  water  off  our  land,  we 
carry  it  whither  we  see  good ;  we  dam  and  bank  in 
our  rivers ;  we  do  not  treat  a  noxious  swamp  side  by 
side  with  a  splendid  city  as  a  result  of  the  working 
of  Divine  laws,  with  which  it  would  be  impious  to 
interfere.  We  may,  at  least,  do  so  much  with  the 
economic  laws.  Laws  of  God  they  are,  laws  of 
Divine  allowance — allowance  of  evils  which  we  are 
left  to  cure;  laws  of  Divine  long-suffering  with  the 
sins  and  weaknesses  of  men,  ruling  the  scene  of 
misguided  forces  and  wasted  good,  which  the  light 
of  the  knowledge  of  God's  love  in  Christ  is  meant 
to  rule,  to  make  fruitful,  and  to  bless.  Laws  of 
Divine  command  they  are  not — those  laws  which,  in 
this  and  in  every  other  field   of  human   action,  we 


86  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

have   to   seek   for    and   to   find,  to  live   by    and   to 
realize  in  fact. 

What  the  laws  of  Divine  command  are  in  the 
In  face  of  region  of  our  economic  life,  we  have  already 
£'^^1"^'''  seen  in  part.  The  Divine  law  is  not  a 
love.  fixed    code,   issued    once    for   all ;     it   is   a 

gradual  growth,  a  gradual  discovery  ;  emerging  as  the 
creative  conscience,  in  virtue  of  which  man  is  the 
image  of  God,  comes  face  to  face  with  facts,  and,  in 
the  facts,  with  God;  feels  His  Spirit  move  upon  it, 
and,  at  each  stage  in  the  revelation  of  law  and  right, 
receives,  in  the  unveiling  of  some  new  feature  in  the 
Eternal  likeness,  the  sanction  of  the  Divine  command. 

The  first  command  is  the  command  to  live — a 
command  which  rests,  not  upon  the  individual,  but 
upon  the  human  community.  The  springs  of  its 
working  are  in  the  individual  will,  but  the  indi- 
vidual is  addressed  and  is  bidden  to  live  as  a 
member  of  a  community.  "  Be  fruitful,  and  mul- 
tiply, and  replenish  the  earth."  The  desire  which 
answers  to  this  command,  is  the  primary  economic 
force,  the  desire  of  life.  This  is  the  first  word  of 
conscience  when  man  finds  himself  face  to  face  with 
the  means  of  life — the  command  to  live,  addressed 
to  the  community  of  men. 

Next  we  find  that  in  living  out  this  common  life, 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION.  87 

in  the  work  of  producing  and  using  together  the 
means  of  life,  we  are  living  by  exchange;  and  con- 
science gives  out,  in  the  face  of  the  fact  of  ex- 
change, the  command,  "Defraud  not;  be  just.  In 
the  exchange  of  life  give  to  another  what  is  recog- 
nized as  due,  by  that  mutual  agreement  of  your 
conscience  and  his  which  makes  them  the  voice  of 
the  Eternal  Justice  and  Right." 

And  now,  lastly,  we  come  to  the  final  facts,  the 
broad  result  in  the  distribution  of  the  good  things 
of  the  world.  Looking  away  from  the  individual 
acts  of  exchange,  in  which,  we  will  suppose,  we  have 
striven  to  act  justly;  looking  at  the  way  in  which 
the  first  command  to  "  be  fruitful,  and  multiply "  is 
actually  fulfilled  in  the  mass  of  human  life,  rich  and 
poor,  which  we  have  before  us  to-day,  we  have  before 
us  facts  which  bring  into  play  a  new  command — the 
command  which  Dives  broke — the  Christian  law, 
"  Love  one  another." 

It  commands  no  mere  amiable  sentiment ;  it  is  an 
exacting   principle.      Conscience,  which  has  Theiove 
carried  us   thus   far  in  the  organization  of  isacon- 

structive 

the   working   world   in   which  we   produce  P""cipie. 
together  and  exchange,  due  for  due,  the  means  of  life, 
does  not  here  subside  into  the  utterance  of  a  vague 
and   meaningless    platitude;    it    retains    its    sternly 


88  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

practical  character,  and  yet  rises  to  a  command 
above  the  level,  it  would  seem,  to  which  we  are  apt 
to  confine  a  conscience  too  mechanically  conceived. 
Conscience  is  but  the  awakening  in  man  as,  in  the 
experience  of  life,  he  comes  face  to  face  with  God, 
of  the  Divine  wisdom  and  goodness  as  a  working, 
organizing  power.  It  is  the  same  faculty  still,  when 
it  becomes  the  voice  of  that  principle  which  in  the 
Christian  Creed  is  the  originative  and  organizing 
principle  of  the  world — the  principle  of  love.  Love 
is  no  mere  accidental  corrective.  We  are  not  to 
live  for  ourselves  in  all  our  work,  and  in  the  or- 
ganization of  our  common  life,  and  then  produce  our 
charity  to  redress  the  worst  anomalies  which  result. 
It  is  an  organizing  principle,  in  the  light  of  which 
we  have  perpetually  to  review,  to  reconstitute,  to 
rearrange  the  whole  of  our  life. 

But  can  we  reconstitute  the  economic  world — this 
intricate  system  of  interdependent  interests,  spreading 
like  a  vast  network  of  natural  irrigation  over  the 
whole  field  of  human  life  ?  The  supposition  is  absurd. 
Plead  that  absurdity,  if  you  dare,  as  a  reason  for 
leaving  the  principle  of  love,  as  a  ruling,  and  not  a 
mere  corrective  principle,  out  of  any  part  of  your 
life.  It  is  God's  work  to  change  the  world  ?  Yes ; 
and   you  know  how,  and  how  alone,  God's  work  is 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DLSTRIBUTION'.  89 

done — by  single  souls  that  accept  His  Will  and  live  by 
His  law ;  and  upon  every  single  soul  there  rests  the 
responsibility  of  answering  the  question,  as  regards 
men  between  whom  and  himself  already  the  great 
gulf  begins  to  yawn — in  practice,  in  the  daily 
business  of  life,  do  you  "love  your  neighbour  as 
yourself,"  do  you  make  your  neighbour's  good  your 
end? 

The  principle  of  love  in  economic  concerns  means 
the   law   of  help,  the  law  of  co-operation,  its  law  is 

the  law  of 

With  co-operation  as  an  industrial  system,  I  ^eip ; 
have  nothing  to  do.  It  may  be  the  best  or  the  worst 
way  of  carrying  out  economic  principles,  of  attaining 
economic  ends.  It  has  helped,  indeed,  to  envisage  the 
moral  principle  on  which  I  wish  to  dwell ;  but  it  is 
with  that  moral  principle  itself,  and  not  with  any 
particular  method  of  carrying  it  out,  that  we  have 
here  to  do,  and  the  principle  is,  that  we  live  and  work 
for  mutual  help.  We  are  so  certain  to  find  this  prin- 
ciple a  stern  and  exacting  law,  that  we  may  safely 
say,  to  start  with,  that,  in  our  economic  life  as  it 
stands,  we  shall  find  a  much  fuller  operation  of  the 
principle  of  help  than  the  ordinary  scientific  descrip- 
tion of  economic  life  would  lead  us  to  believe.  Let 
us  examine  what  this  law  of  love  amounts  to  and 
demands. 


90  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

1.  The  first  utterance  of   the  law  of  help  is  this, 
z>. (i)iden-  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as  thyself" 

tify  your  ,  .  ,  .  „ 

neighbour's  — that  IS  to  Say,  you  must  identify  your 
your  own;  neighbour's  interest  with  your  own.  This 
law  grows  naturally  enough  out  of  the  relations  of 
just  exchange.  Justice  between  man  and  man  implies 
the  recognition  of  a  common  standard  as  to  what 
is  due  from  each  to  each.  This  recognition  of  a 
common  standard  of  right  arises  out  of  the  recog- 
nition of  a  common  good  in  the  common  pursuit 
of  which  they  are  combined ;  and  in  the  recog- 
nition of  this  common  standard  each  becomes  the 
guardian  of  the  other's  good.  Each  man  is  the  natural 
guardian  of  the  interests  of  those  with  whom  he  deals  ; 
that  is  the  truth  against  which  the  old  instinct  of 
antagonism  springs  up  in  us  again  and  again,  and 
cries,  *'  Am  I  my  brother's  keeper  ?  "  If  not,  who  is  ? 
Between  you  and  him  the  whole  transaction  lies.  Is 
it  a  sheer  fight,  each  to  get  the  most  he  can  ?  Is  each 
seekinof  the  other's  loss  ?  We  revolt  from  such  a  mis- 
representation  of  the  life  of  human  commerce,  in 
which  we  know  that  the  spirit  of  good  will,  when  it 
is  present,  is  no  incongruous  intruder.  Where  is  it, 
then  ?  In  you  towards  him,  in  him  towards  you— in 
each  good  will.  You  will  his  good ;  that  is  your  part 
in  the  transaction,  as  a  moral  transaction  at  aU — that 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION.  91 

is,  you  are  the  guardian  of  his  interest.  Look  at  any 
of  the  great  industrial  enterprises  of  to-day — the 
bridge  that  is  just  being  completed  across  the  Tay,  or 
the  still  more  wonderful  creation,  transcending  the  old 
wonders  of  the  world,  which  is  to  span  the  Forth. 
Wonders  they  are — ^wonders  of  sheer  magnitude,  won- 
ders of  skill,  wonders  for  the  daring  they  demand  in 
those  who  plan  and  in  those  who  carry  them  out.  But 
there  is  a  greater  wonder  still.  The  work  is  good  ; 
those  who  work  it  know  it  to  be  good,  and  for  its 
own  sake  put  into  it  the  best  energy  of  brain,  heart, 
and  hand,  proud  to  bear  a  part  in  a  benefit  to  men. 
Measure  even  by  the  moral  indignation  with  which 
we  should  learn  that  any  of  them  had  been  false  to 
the  high  vocation  to  which  they  feel  themselves  to 
be  called,  how  deep  the  conviction  is  in  our  minds 
that  the  man  who  works,  and  the  man  who  sells,  are 
the  guardians  of  the  good  of  those  for  whom  they 
work  and  those  to  whom  they  sell.  There  opens  at 
every  turn  before  a  man  who  is  engaged  in  this  con- 
tinual give  and  take  of  due  for  due,  of  wage  for  work, 
and  work  for  wage,  of  price  for  commodity,  and  com- 
modity for  price,  this  vision  of  a  higher  level  to  which 
all  his  life  is  raised,  as  he  sees  it  to  be  the  exacting 
duty  and  the  crowning  privilege  of  his  life  to  seek  the 
good  of  others.     It  is  an  identification,  not  an  identity 


92  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

of  interests.  Your  good  and  your  neighbour  s  good 
are  not  on  the  first  blush  the  same ;  there  is  a  moral 
effort  needed,  a  constant  strain,  it  may  be  a  struggle, 
after  the  dignity  of  the  higher  aim.  But  if  we  fail  of  it 
we  feel  ourselves  degraded ;  we  hide  rather  than  parade 
what  we  know  to  be  our  shame.  It  is  a  better  life  that 
loves  the  light ;  and  our  transactions  cannot  reach  after 
that  moral  glory  and  perfection  in  which  they  may 
challenge  the  scrutiny  of  men  and  the  final  judgment 
of  God,  unless  each  man  is  striving  towards  this  as  the 
ideal  of  his  commerce  with  his  kind — that  each  man 
should  make  the  good  of  the  other  his  own,  his  end. 

2.  And  this  principle,  again,  leads  us  a  step  further 
(2)  pursue  still.  Our  ncighbour's  good  must  be  made 
b4,  at  the      our  own,  always  in  spirit,  sometimes  in  stern 

sacrifice  of 

your  own ;  f^^^t,  at  thc  sacrlficc  of  what  seems  to  be  our 
own.  That  sacrifice  is  demanded  by  the  law  of  help, 
by  the  law  of  love,  by  the  law  which  is  the  life  of 
God,  whose  breach  is  the  eternal  death  of  the  likeness 
of  God  in  man.  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour  as 
thyself."  Let  us  translate  it  afresh.  You  ought  to  be 
ready  to  make  any  and  every  sacrifice  for  those  with 
whom  you  deal,  which  you  would  accept  and  approve 
if  it  were  made  for  you.  We  have  an  easy  answer  for 
those  who,  ignorant  of  the  real  life  of  commerce  and 
Christianity  alike,  would  consider  sacrifice  an  incon- 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION,  93 

gruous  idea  in  commercial  concerns.  Sacrifice  in  com- 
merce ?  Well,  commerce  is  the  life  of  commercial  men 
— of  all  men,  in  so  far  as  they  live  by  the  ordinary 
commerce  on  which  we  all  depend.  Are  you  to  banish 
Christianity  from  the  life  of  commercial  men  ?  Christ 
came  to  show  men  what  love  is,  and  to  enable  them 
to  live  in  it.  He  showed  it  by  sacrifice.  He  enables 
men  to  make  sacrifices,  to  their  wives,  to  their  chil- 
dren, to  those  they  love,  to  those  they  pity,  to  the 
miserable  and  degraded,  sunk  in  sin — but  not  to  their 
customers  ?  Are  these,  then,  not  their  neighbours  ? 
The  main  part  of  the  life  of  many  men  is  commerce; 
an  essential  part  of  the  life  of  all  of  us  is  commerce ; 
and  is  the  distinctive  Christian  principle,  the  principle 
of  sacrifice,  to  have  no  concern  with  commerce  ?  No 
one  can  seriously  maintain  this  solemn  excommuni- 
cation of  large  classes  of  human  beings,  this  curse 
of  godlessness,  cast  as  a  ban  upon  whole  regions  of 
human  life.  We  have  only  to  state  it,  to  see  it  to  be 
what  it  is — a  preposterous  absurdity.  We  may  some- 
times, perhaps  often,  give  in  to  the  idea,  as  we  give  in, 
without  thought  or  care,  to  many  another  cynical  and 
accursed  fallacy  that  floats  suspended  like  a  poisonous 
miasma  in  the  mixed  atmosphere  of  common  feeling 
and  opinion,  but  we  don't  believe  anything  of  the 
kind  to  be  true. 


94  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

The  great  and  obvious  sacrifices  may  be  rare ;  the 
demand  for  them  may  be  rare.  When  they  come 
they  may  be  difficult  to  make.  A  sacrifice  is  dif- 
ficult to  make,  or  it  would  not  be  a  sacrifice  at  all. 
The  power  to  make  them  when  they  do  come,  to  put 
forth  the  strength  of  the  Spirit,  and  rise  to  share 
the  privilege  of  the  Son  of  God,  comes  out  of  a  life, 
in  which  the  devotion  of  life  to  others  is  a  constant, 
dominating  principle,  the  soul  and  spring  of  hope 
and  purpose  and  desire.  This  is  the  effort,  this  is 
the  call,  this  is  the  height  of  the  vocation  of  those 
whose  life  it  is  to  feed  the  lives  of  men,  to  pass  their 
days  in  that  continual  give  and  take  of  work  for 
work,  of  life  for  life,  in  which  the  spirit  of  self-devotion 
can  find,  has  found,  and  is  meant  to  find,  its  own 
familiar  home.  The  soldier  must  die,  rather  than 
leave  his  post  in  battle.  What  would  you  say  of  him 
if,  at  a  critical  moment,  he  left  his  post  because  he 
did  not  think  he  would  receive  his  pay  ?  If  commerce 
claims  a  place  in  Christian  life,  this  means  that  the 
man  who  engages  in  it  pursues  and  lives  for  an  end, 
a  good  to  other  men,  which  he  will  never  sacrifice 
for  anything,  and  to  make  sacrifices  for  which,  on  due 
occasion,  is  an  outcome  of  the  normal  working  of  the 
Spirit  of  Christ  in  his  soul  and  life.  Only,  if  you 
would  not  have  that  Spirit  fail  in  you  at  need,  dignify 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION.  95 

with  a  true  estimate  of  its  high  purpose  and  life- 
sustaining  function  the  daily  work  of  the  profession 
to  which  you  give  your  life.  Let  the  spirit  of  self- 
devotion  to  the  good  of  others,  which  must  carry  you 
through  crises  where  the  choice  lies  between  heroism 
and  treason,  consecrate,  pervade,  and  bless,  with  the 
beneficent  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  Love,  the  good 
works  which  God  has  ordained  for  you  to  walk  in 
them. 

But,   meanwhile,  what  has   become   of  that   keen 
desire  for  life,  which  we  know  as  the  first  r^s^^^ 
moving  force  of  the  economic  system — that  wuTfiffthe 

energy  of 

eager  strivins^  after  fuller,  richer  life,  whose  Jp^e  to  be 

°  °  '  '  theenergy 

movement  is  sanctioned  by  the  Divine  com-  °^^'^^' 
mand,  '^  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply  "  ?  The  units  of  this 
force  are  in  the  individual  souls  and  bodies,  striving 
each  for  their  own  sustenance  in  life.  Are  they  to  be 
led  on  until  they  find  this  first  impulse  wholly  lost,  in 
a  demand  for  the  devotion  to  others  of  the  life  which 
they  seek  to  maintain  ?  Is  this  the  end  of  that 
development  which  the  soul  must  follow,  under  the 
stress  of  a  moral  necessity,  in  the  growing  light  of  a 
conscience  whose  demand  becomes  more  exacting  the 
higher  the  level  to  which  we  will  consent  to  rise  ?  The 
end — almost  the  end — the  end,  if  we  will  see  it  to  be 
indeed  the  end.      We  desire  lif(gj.Jikifi„jt  turns  out, 

ff^^   OF  THB        -^^ 

(minVBRSITT)) 


96  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

is  what  life  means,  this  is  what  life  is — not  the 
highest  merely,  not  the  noblest  only,  but  the  one 
life  alone  possible  at  all  for  those  who  once  begin  to 
mount  the  steep,  and  will  not  be  persuaded  to  turn 
back. 

Love  is  its  own  end,  and  seeks  no  other,  no  reward. 
The  devotion  of  life — to  give  time,  and  effort,  and  heart, 
and  thought,  and  pains,  and,  if  need  be,  anything  and 
everything  to  the  service  of  others — this  is  the  end,  the 
true  end ;  there  is  nothing  beyond,  nothing  higher,  or 
nobler,  or  better,  or  more  like  to  God — the  only  end 
which  justifies  a  man  and  glorifies  a  life.  The  rich 
man  in  the  parable  lived  for  himself;  that  was  why 
he  did  not  notice  Lazarus  at  the  gate.  He  lived  for 
himself  There  the  facts  lay  before  him,  that  there 
were  others  to  live  for,  others  whom  he  could  help, 
and  conscience  spoke  and  echoed  what  Moses  and  the 
Prophets  had  taught,  "  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour 
as  thyself; "  and  he — he  loved  his  neighbour,  probably, 
just  so  much  as  was  necessary  to  gratify  his  own  self- 
love,  and  no  more ;  and  he  saw  no  more ;  he  didn't 
even  see  Lazarus  longing  for  the  crumbs.  If  you 
would  have  the  spiritual  eye  which  sees  the  occasion 
for  mercy,  your  life  must  be  ruled  by  that  spirit  of 
love  which  is  life  itself,  which  finds  its  satisfaction  in 
the  energy  of  self-devotion,  in  the  life  of  that  Love 


LOVE,    THE  LAW  OF  DISTRIBUTION.  97 

which  has  given  us  all  provision  for  our  needs,  of  that 
Love  which  He  is,  Who  said,  "  I  am  the  Beginning 
and  the  End."  His  are  the  principles  by  which  each 
individual  Christian  soul  is  called  upon  to  glorify  his 
life — that,  in  all  the  transactions  of  life,  a  man  make 
his  neighbour  s  interest  his  own;  that  he  do  so,  if  need 
be,  at  his  own  cost  and  loss,  and  that  he  find  in  this 
the  self-satisfying  energy  of  life. 

There  is  nothing  here  which  may  not  be  done 
in  some  degree,  and  in  a  daily  increasing  degree, 
in  the  economic  world  and  life  of  to-day.  "Love 
one  another^  It  is  the  work  of  individual  souls 
towards  individual  souls.  Christ  did  not  demand 
that  the  world  should  be  set  in  order  before  He 
came  to  live  in  it  the  Perfect  Life.  You  are  not 
to  expect  to  see  the  principles  of  Christ  in  acknow- 
ledged and  popular  supremacy,  before  you  will  walk 
in  His  footsteps  by  Whose  Name  you  are  called.  You 
are  to  live  by  them,  and  give  yourself  to  them,  glad 
that,  in  so  doing,  you  can  give  yourself  to  Christ, 
Who  has  given  Himself  to  you,  so  that  in  you  may 
live  the  joy  of  those  who  give  themselves  for  love. 
He  made  the  interests,  the  needs,  the  aims  of  suffer- 
ing humanity  His  own.  He  faced  the  sacrifice.  "  He 
saw  of  the  travail  of  His  soul,  and  was  satisfied  " — 
satisfied  in  love  realized  and  acted  out,  love  lived  by 

H 


98  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

as  a  stern  and  searching  law,  love  leading  to  loss  and 
death  and  shame,  love  so  offered  to  the  hearts  of  men, 
and,  by  the  hearts  of  men  who  should  be  worthy  of 
such  love,  accepted  as  the  law,  treasured  as  the  privilege 
of  life. 


V. 

THE  BLESSING  OF  LABOUR. 

"  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field,  .  .  .  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they 
spin."— S.  Matt.  vi.  28. 

It  is  a  wonderful  sight  for  one  who  lives  in  less 
fertile  lands  to  come  among  the  harvest  The  blessing 
fields  of  the  eastern  counties  of  England,  °  ^  °'"^' 
in  the  midst  of  harvest-time.  A  golden  land,  shining 
in  the  glory  of  the  autumn  sun.  Everywhere  the 
golden  grain ;  here  and  there  a  field  of  waving  gold, 
elsewhere  the  treasure  stored  in  the  long  line  of 
golden  stack  ;  most  often  sunburnt,  stalwart  men, 
gathering  the  precious  gifts  of  God,  with  the  sunlight 
of  His  blessing  on  their  toil.  It  is  a  picture  of  the 
blessing  of  labour.  Can  it  be  that  labour  ever  was 
a  curse  ?  How  did  the  words  ever  come  to  sound 
other  than  a  blessing,  "  In  the  sweat  of  thy  brow  thou 
shalt  eat  bread  "  ? 

No  doubt  it  mav  be  said  of  Eno^lish  agricultural 


lOO  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

labour,  that  though  its  produce  glitters  in  the  August 
sun,  its  days  of  golden  prosperity  are  gone,  and  that 
the  sunburnt  labourer,  and  those  for  whom  he  labours, 
reap  for  themselves  no  golden  harvest  from  their  work. 
But  let  us  take  the  picture,  none  the  less,  for  the  truth 
that  is  in  it,  and  see  whether  it  is  altogether  a  paradox 
to  read  in  it  that  labour — this  labour  as  it  is — that 
labour  always  and  in  itself  is  a  blessing, 

1.  Is   weariness   a   blessing  ?      Is  it   not  ?      "  Man 
(i)  in  the  full  goeth  forth  to  his  work,  and  to  his  labour, 

employment 

of  energy;  until  the  eveniug,"  is  the  culmination  of  the 
Psalm  of  nature — the  evening,  the  time  of  rest,  when 
power  is  spent  and  energy  exhausted,  when  the  day's 
life  is  lived  out  to  the  full,  and  the  hour  of  repose  is 
come.  Labour  is  a  blessing,  first  of  all,  because  it 
is  the  employment  of  energy.  Man  is  a  thing  that 
works,  and,  without  work,  is  restless  and  ill  at  ease. 
He  is  full  of  possibilities,  unhappy  till,  of  his  own 
power,  he  has  made  something  real ;  full  of  force, 
uneasy  till  it  is  spent  on  some  device;  full  of  dim 
dreams,  half  seen,  half  felt,  of  what  it  may  be  given 
him  to  do,  impatient  till  they  take  shape  in  a  task 
set,  a  work  accomplished,  and  a  duty  done.  Rest 
after  labour  is  the  only  rest.  Can  we  conceive  a 
happy  life  in  which  the  power  latent  in  muscle, 
nerve,   and   will,   should  never    be   called   forth;   in 


THE  BLESSING  OF  LABOUR.  ici 

which  obstacle  and  diflSculty  should  never  challenge 
the  reserve  of  force ;  in  which  a  man  should  never 
know  what  it  is  to  look  back  with  wonder  on  the 
achievement  of  that  to  which  he  set  himself  in  doubt 
and  fear  ? 

This  is  the  treasure  of  a  nation,  this  stored  reserve 
of  faculty,  this  hidden  power  waiting  to  show  itself 
as  will  directed  to  an  object,  revelling  in  the  exer- 
cise of  strength,  resting  only  when  the  music  sounds 
upon  the  ear,  "  The  work  is  done."  Economic  science 
calls  it  labour,  and  its  motive  wages.  Who  can  say 
how  large  a  proportion  of  its  work  every  day  is  done 
under  the  stress  of  some  such  force  as  that  which 
the  Apostle  described  when  he  said,  "  Woe  is  me,  if 
I  preach  not  the  Gospel,"  because  the  power  pent 
up  must  find  its  way  out  into  life,  because  of  the 
sheer  joy  of  work,  the  delight  in  the  exertion  of  the 
energy  that  stirs  and  quickens  within  us,  that  seeks 
blindly  for  some  object  on  which  it  may  spend  itself, 
in  gaining  which  it  may  have  rest  ?  On  the  face  of 
it,  this  is  a  blessing — a  blessing  to  thank  God  for — 
that  we  have  known  what  it  is  to  feel  this  power 
moving  within  us,  to  feel  it  at  work  in  the  labour  of 
day  after  day  and  year  after  year,  to  see  it  embodied 
in  work  done,  and  to  thank  God,  not  only  for  the 
result,  but  for  the  power  and  its  use. 


I02  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

2.  And  yet,  after  all,  is  it  not  practically  true  that 

(2)  in  the  ^  "^^^  works,  not  to  employ  his  energies,  but 
wages  of  life;  ^^   ^^^^   j^-^   ^^^^^  ^      Certainly,   it    is   the 

second  blessing  of  labour,  that  the  labourer  is  worthy 
of  his  hire.  Wages  earned  are  a  blessing.  It  is  good 
that  a  man  enjoys  the  fruit  of  his  labour,  that  he 
holds  in  his  hand  the  witness  that  his  work  is  done. 
It  is  a  part  of  the  gift  of  power  and  its  use  to  see 
and  feel  it  gain  its  end.  This  end,  among  other 
ends,  is  a  thing  towards  which  it  has  been  directed, 
to  support  the  life  from  which  it  comes.  At  its 
lowest,  honest  labour  done  for  wages'  sake  is  so  far 
blessed  in  wages  earned ;  but  to  the  man  to  whom  the 
power  and  its  use  are  themselves  a  blessing  and  a 
gift,  wages  also  are  a  gift — earned,  and  yet  a  gift, 
the  other  half  of  that  double  gift  which  is  made  up 
of  work  and  its  reward.  The  work  itself,  in  the 
doing  of  it,  absorbs  all  energy  and  thought,  and 
wages  for  work  done  come  as  an  added  good;  they 
are  a  blessing  most  of  all  to  those  to  whom  work 
itself  is  a  privilege  and  a  blessing. 

All  work,  be  it  good  or  evil  in  its  motive  and  its 
character,  gains  in  the  end  its  wages  and  reward — 
from  the  selfish  desire  which  gains  the  reward  of 
death,  the  wages  of  sin,  up  to  the  labour  which  works 
in   the   spirit    of    the   rule,    "Give,  and   it   shall  be 


THE  BLESSING  OF  LABOUR.  103 

given  to  you."  All  honest  and  true  workmen  know, 
as  a  matter  of  fact  and  experience,  that  the  earning 
of  wages  is  a  blessing,  that  good  received  is  doubled 
where  it  results  from  good  done  or  good  attempted. 
It  is  good  for  a  man  to  feel  that  he  possesses  his  own 
means  of  life  in  right  of  his  own  labour.  Labour 
that  is  coldly  measured  to  match  a  calculated  wage, 
gains  only  the  poor  and  meagre  reward  for  which 
it  works;  but  even  here  the  good  is  done  in  some 
measure,  and  in  the  same  measure  good  is  received. 
Labour  that  is  given  with  the  full  heart  of  a  life 
that  loves  to  spend  itself  in  work,  rises  to  the  fruition 
of  that  great  reward,  which  is  beyond  all  earning,  and 
is  rightly  called  a  gift,  the  gift  of  life. 

Is  not  this  the  sum  and  substance  of  what  men 
desire  as  wages,  of  what  we  think  they  have  a  right 
to  ask  ?  The  wages  of  work  is  life.  This  is  the 
blessing  bestowed  by  rights  upon  all  who  work — they 
live  ;  they  have,  as  the  outcome  of  their  labour,  what 
is  worthy  to  be  called  a  life.  This  is  the  standard 
of  comfort  to  which,  by  testing  it,  we  have  to  teach 
men  to  rise,  that  they  know  what  it  is  to  live.  Life 
is  not  only  faculties  evoked,  energies  employed, 
force  exercised  to  the  full,  but  desires  fed  with  the 
achievement  of  the  objects  of  desire,  will  spent  in 
effort  after  an  ideal  of  happiness  which  can  satisfy 


I04  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

the  will,  and  a  heart  moving  and  yet  resting  in  the 
peaceful  activities  of  a  home,  where  the  love  that 
goes  up  like  a  prayer  to  Heaven  is  answered  by  the 
love  that  bends  like  an  angel  of  blessing  over  the 
living  image  of  Heaven  upon  earth. 

For  this  is  the  last  and  crowning  blessing  of  labour  ; 
(3)  in  the       it  is   the   instrument   and  the  life  of  love. 

living  energy 

of  love.  Here,  at  least,  in  the  highest  claim  for 
labour,  we  endow  it  with  no  imaginary  glory.  Men 
do  work  for  the  love  of  those  on  whom  they  may 
spend  the  wages  of  their  work — for  their  wives,  for 
their  children,  for  their  home.  Labour  is  the  trodden 
road  of  love,  the  means  of  all  the  daily  sacrifices  by 
which  men  serve  those  whom  they  have  learnt  to  love 
— even  when  it  is  also  the  unconscious,  or  even  the 
unwilling,  service  of  those  whom  they  have  not  yet 
learnt  to  love.  And  in  proportion  as  labour  is  felt  to 
be  by  those  who  work  the  channel  along  which  those 
energies  find  vent,  whose  stoppage  would  be  death, 
and  is  rewarded  in  wages  with  a  life  worthy  of  the 
work  which  earns  it,  love  widens  out  from  wife  and 
child,  for  whom  men  work,  to  fellow -labourers  who  share 
the  toil,  to  all  with  whom  the  organization  of  labour 
brings  the  worker  into  living  and  human  relations. 

Labour  is  the  way  of  sacrifice,  which  makes  love 
a  strong  and  energizing  principle,  instead  of  a  weak 


THE  BLESSING   OF  LABOUR,  105 

and  enervating  sentiment.  It  is  the  test  of  its  sin- 
cerity and  the  satisfaction  of  its  true  desire.  Love  may 
begin  as  the  desire  to  possess,  but,  as  a  living  spirit, 
it  is  the  desire  to  serve.  It  finds  out  its  true  vocation, 
it  learns  the  secret  of  the  impulse  whose  strength, 
at  first,  it  feels,  but  does  not  understand,  when  this 
impulse  carries  it,  at  the  cost  of  daily  self-denial, 
along  the  road  of  daily  duty.  And  the  natural  course 
of  its  development,  as  it  fills  the  days  of  men  with 
labours  done  and  pains  endured  for  love,  is  that  it 
should  grow  to  be  an  end  to  itself,  no  longer  satisfied 
with  the  sphere  which  remains  its  centre  and  its 
home,  but  cannot  limit  its  radiation  or  restrict  the 
scope  of  its  life.  He  who  loves  at  home,  and  works  in 
love  for  home,  finds  love  to  be  a  life  that  seeks  a 
wider  range,  a  feeling  that  is  ready  to  spring  forth  on 
every  occasion  of  social  contact,  a  spirit  that  is  ready 
to  enter  into  the  body  prepared  for  it  in  the  very 
framework  of  the  society  of  men. 

Labour  forces  love  to  know  itself  The  love  of 
home  is  a  test  to  which  a  man  may  bring  back  his 
conduct  in  the  wider  world,  and  ask  whether  it  was 
worthy  of  the  ideal  which  he  would  not  be  content 
to  forsake.  And  in  the  wider  world,  in  the  more 
ordinary  business  relations  with  men,  labour  affords 
a  field  of  fellowship  in  the  common  efforts  of  men 


io6  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

working  side  by  side  for  common  ends,  and,  still  more, 
opportunities  of  sacrifice  and  self-denial,  which  the 
true  spirit,  bred  in  labour  done  for  love,  will  recognize 
if  it  is  awake,  will  grasp  at  and  use  if  it  is  alive,  till 
the  man  learns  to  know,  in  all  those  with  whom  he 
has  to  do,  his  brethren  in  the  family  of  the  Everlasting 
Father ;  and  in  labour,  even  unrepaid,  by  which  their 
brethren  gain,  the  sons  of  God,  working  in  the  spirit 
of  His  love,  see  of  the  travail  of  their  souls  and  are 
satisfied. 

Such  is  the  blessing  of  labour,  as  we  see  and 
know  it  may  be  now  lived  in  and  enjoyed.  There  is 
no  doubt  about  its  reality,  however  true  it  may  be 
that  the  picture  we  have  drawn  is  an  ideal.  The 
reality  of  the  world  of  labour  as  it  is,  affords  a  far 
different  picture,  and  one  which  we  cannot  look  upon 
too  often,  and  can  never  look  upon  without  pain.  But 
the  ideal,  too,  is  a  reality — a  living  and  working  reality  ; 
it  is  an  ideal  which  men  have  before  them ;  it  is  a  life 
which  they  know  to  be  the  best,  and  strive  in  some 
measure  to  attain.     The  blessing  of  labour  is  real. 

Turn,  then,  from  this  ideal  to  another,  to  what  is 
Contrast  ^Iso  iu  part  au  imaginary  picture  of  the 
ideal  the       blcsslug  of  au  unlaborious  life — of  the  lives 

unlaborious 

^f^-  of  those  of  whom  it  has  been  said,  with  an 

unfortunately  contemptuous  perversion  of  the  words. 


THE  BLESSING   OF  LABOUR.  107 

that  "  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin."  There 
are  few  things  in  this  world  more  beautiful  than 
one  of  the  homes  of  those  of  whom  the  words  have 
been  lately  used.  Whether  or  not  we  acquiesce  in 
the  indictment  which  is  implied,  as  just,  we  cannot 
fail  to  acknowledge  the  grace  and  beauty  of  what  at 
first  seems  to  be  a  beautiful,  because  it  is  an  effortless 
life.  Put  aside  for  a  moment  all  knowledge  but  that 
of  a  child,  who  knows  of  no  hard  world  beyond  the 
fence,  and  walks  with  a  delight  which  centuries  of 
life  inspire,  along  the  walls  to  which  time  has  given 
its  glory,  under  the  trees  which  time  has  made  to 
tower  over  pleasant  parks  and  meadows,  and  learns 
from  the  gladness  of  a  garden  of  flowers  a  joy  whose 
memory  will  never  die.  Is  not  all  this  a  blessing 
— a  blessing  because  it  comes  unsought — a  sheer, 
unworked-for  gift,  the  blessing  of  the  enjoyment  of 
unlaborious  good  ?  "  Consider  the  lilies  of  the  field, 
.  .  .  they  toil  not,  neither  do  they  spin." 

And  yet  if  we  bring  back  to  the  experience  and  the 
enjoyment  of  a  child  the  knowledge  and  the  The  life 

that  need 

conscience  and  the  heart  of  a  man,  is  not  "o'^  labour 

'  cannot  be 

such  a  scene  as  this,  with  all  there  is  in  it,  byfharfnl^' 

•11  PI  1  r¥Ti  ^^  blessing 

a  very  wilderness  01  death  ?    The  walls  were  of  labour. 
raised  in  beauty  with  the  toil  and  pain  of  other  days  : 
would   those  who  built  them  be   content  that  men 


io8  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

should  stroll  within  their  shelter  or  their  shade  ?  If 
there  is  grace  and  beauty  in  all  that  is  about  us, 
it  is  the  grace  and  beauty  given  by  labour,  and  by 
labour  for  the  love  of  home.  And  for  the  flowers, "  Con- 
sider the  lilies  of  the  field,  .  .  .  they  toil  not,  neither 
do  they  spin."  What  did  He  mean,  but  that  they  busy 
themselves  with  no  superfluous  and  futile  anxiety 
of  toil,  to  secure  what  is  already  given  to  their 
appointed  labour  after  their  kind.  The  garment  of 
glory  which  they  wear  is  woven  by  their  own  proper 
power  and  energy,  which  is  His  gift.  Their  beauty  is 
the  work  of  their  labour.  The  scene  is  full  of  forces, 
slumbering,  or  still  at  work,  pointing  to  some  further 
end,  longing  for  a  fuller  use.  Here,  not  least, ''  creation 
groans  and  travails,  waiting  for  the  adoption,  to  wit, 
the  redemption  of  their  bodies,"  "who  do  not  walk 
worthy  of  the  vocation  with  which  they  are  called." 
It  is  not  to  be  said  that  many  do  not  use  largely,  and 
for  good,  the  resources  of  life  and  love  with  which  the 
labour  of  past  ages  has  blessed  them ;  but  it  is  to  be 
said  that  the  life  of  labour  afibrds  the  test  of  the 
degree  in  which  those  are  to  be  counted  blest,  to  whom 
the  liberty  is  left  to  live  an  unlaborious  life.  A  life 
without  eftbrt  is  not  the  life  of  Christ,  or  of  those  who 
follow  Him. 

Labour  is  the  blessing  of  all  lives — the  blessing, 


THE  BLESSING  OF  LABOUR.  109 

first,  in  the  employment  of  power.  What  range  of 
power  is  given  to  those  on  whom  has  descended  the 
inheritance  and  fruit  of  the  energies  of  other  days  ! 
The  blessing  is  to  use  this  inheritance  to  the  full ;  to 
employ,  to  exhaust  the  faculties  and  possibilities  of 
work  which  are  dormant  in  the  material,  and  ready 
to  burst  into  life  in  the  moral  heritage  of  those  the 
satisfaction  of  whose  needs  is  provided.  What  bless- 
ing of  weariness  may  be  theirs  !  What  a  challenge 
to  the  soul  to  live  itself  out  into  all  this  framework 
of  life,  to  find  the  new  and  higher  needs,  for  whose 
satisfaction  the  man  is  predestined  to  toil  who  need 
not  work  for  life.  It  is  as  though  a  man,  who  had 
known  the  joy  of  strength  in  a  common  human  frame, 
should  feel  his  soul  suddenly  called  to  animate  with 
superhuman  power  the  nerves  of  a  vastly  more  highly 
organized  braio,  and  the  sinews  of  a  giant's  strength. 
The  vigour  and  the  joy  of  sheer  life  may  be  multi- 
plied a  thousand-fold  by  the  efforts  of  a  man's  own 
will  and  the  cravings  of  his  own  heart ;  but  upon 
these  the  efforts  of  the  wills  of  others,  and  the  cravings 
of  the  hearts  that  have  long  ceased  to  beat,  have 
redoubled  the  blessing  of  their  gifts. 

The  wages  of  labour  is  life.  Contrast  the  living 
death  of  a  life  of  mere  enjoyment,  spent  amid  all  the 
resources  of  wealth,  with  the  life  of  one  who  should 


no  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

see  himself  repaid  in  the  coin  such  labour  earns  for 
the  living  use  of  the  opportunities  of  wealth.  Enjoy- 
ment earns  the  wages  of  death ;  the  powers  of  enjoy- 
ment decay  in  the  using,  and  leave  no  new  faculty 
to  grow  in  their  place.  Labour  earns  always  the 
infinite  increase  of  life.  What  would  a  man  be  worth, 
what  would  he  deserve,  who  should  use  to  the 
full  the  faculties  and  opportunities  of  a  life  which 
begins  with  needs  satisfied  to  the  full  ?  He  would  be 
rewarded,  in  the  natural  return  of  wages  for  work, 
with  new  faculties,  with  new  opportunities,  only  too 
great  to  be  borne  with  humility  and  used  in  faithful 
life,  but  that  "  with  God  all  things  are  possible,"  and 
"  He  will  with  the  temptation  make  a  way  to  escape." 
One  spirit,  and  one  only,  could  gain  such  wages, 
or  could  bear  to  receive  them — the  spirit  of  Him  Who 
emptied  Himself  for  the  love  of  men.  For  amid  all 
the  glory  of  a  life  in  which  the  resources  of  wealth 
should  be  used  in  loyal  labour,  unconstrained  but  by 
the  spirit  of  love,  there  will  remain  that  one  gift, 
which  to  give  to  God  and  to  men  is  the  ennobling 
privilege  and  consecrating  grace  of  all  alike — the  gift 
of  self  This  is  the  true  spiritual  labour,  the  human 
prerogative  of  which  no  wealth  can  rob  a  man,  the 
duty  which  no  riches  can  make  easy,  the  spirit  with- 
out which  no  labour  avails  to  do  good.     This  may  be 


THE  BLESSING  OF  LABOUR.  iii 

the  saving  grace  of  a  life,  the  very  luxuriance  of  whose 
opportunities  might  else  be  more  than  man  could  bear. 
This  is  the  spirit  which  turns  the  curse  of  labour  to 
a  blessing — the  spirit  of  self-sacrifice,  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  And  the  field  of  labour,  as  it  is,  cries  aloud 
for  this  spirit  to  descend  upon  it,  in  the  living  sym- 
pathy of  those  who,  by  bearing  their  own  share  of 
the  burdens  of  men,  have  earned  the  right  and  the 
power  to  lighten  the  load  of  the  heavy-laden. 


VI. 
THE   PRIVILEGE  OF   MONOPOLY. 

There  are  three  great  factors  in  economic  life. 
The  typical  Thcj  are  present  with  the  obligations  that 
rha"Tf°the'^  bclong  to  their  work,  in  different  degrees  and 
labour.  combinations,  in  the  various  members  of  the 
economic  body.  Labour  is  the  most  universal.  The 
universality  of  the  duty  and  the  blessing  of  labour 
has  been  the  subject  of  the  sermon  preceding  this 
essay.  Labour,  in  one  or  more  of  the  senses  covered 
by  the  full  width  of  its  meaning — labour  of  hand  or 
brain  or  heart,  is  the  economic  function  of  all  men 
as  men.  But  we  should  distinguish,  for  the  duties 
which  belong  to  them,  the  present  labour  which  earns 
wages,  from  the  past  labour  to  which  is  paid  in 
interest  the  natural  fruit  and  growth  of  the  resources 
it  provides  for  present  labour;  and,  secondly,  in 
present  labour  we  should  distinguish  labour  proper 
from  the  special  labour  of  management  and  direction. 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY,  113 

Labour  proper,  labour  in  the  ordinary  and  narrower 
sense  of  economic  science,  needs  resources  to  provide 
the  raw  material  upon  which  it  works,  the  tools  with 
which  it  works,  and  the  wages  which  anticipate  its 
share  of  the  produce.  And  labour,  in  the  narrower 
sense,  needs  further  the  management  which  gives  it 
direction,  which  conceives  its  end  and  plans  its  method, 
and  is  able  to  obtain  command  of  the  resources  which 
are  needed  for  its  work. 

I  wish  to  deal,  in  this  and  the  following  essay,  with 
some  aspects  of  the  duty  proper  to  each  of  these  two 
latter  factors  in  economic  life.  Economists  differ  in 
their  treatment  of  this  part  of  their  subject.  Some 
speak  of  the  profits  of  capital,  grouping  under  the  single 
name  the  wages  of  the  labour  of  management,  and  the 
interest  on  the  resources  which  the  power  of  manage- 
ment enables  the  master  or  capitalist  to  command. 
Others  distinguish  the  two  elements  in  profits,  as 
earnings  of  management  and  interest.  For  our 
purpose,  the  essential  thing  to  observe  is  that  the 
power  of  management,  the  head-work,  the  brain  power, 
is  not  only  itself  at  the  command  of  the  man  who 
possesses  it,  but  confers  upon  its  possessor  the  com- 
mand of  resources.  He  has  duties,  it  may  be,  as  the 
personal  owner  of  resources,  for  the  loan  of  which  he 
receives  interest.   He  has  duties  as  a  labourer — a  brain 

I 


114  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

labourer,  but  a  labourer  still.  But  both  as  a  brain 
labourer,  and  in  the  command  of  resources  which  brain 
power  gives,  he  has  special  duties ;  and  these  may,  I 
think,  be  most  effectively  dealt  with  in  a  consideration 
of  the  moral  aspect  of  monopoly. 

The  term  "  monopoly"  has  two  precise  meanings :  the 
sole  right  to  deal  in  a  given  commodity  conferred  by 
law — a  meaning  with  which  we  now  have  little  to  do, 
except  in  regard  to  the  instructive  instance  of  the  rights 
of  patentees,  and  the  sole  power  of  dealing  in  a  given 
commodity,  gained  in  the  use  or  abuse  of  free  competi- 
tion by  an  individual  or  by  a  body  of  individuals. 

Generalizing  from  these  two  instances,  we  may  say 
that  monopoly  meaus  any  command  of  wealth,  or  of 
resources  for  its  production,  which  becomes  concentrated 
in  the  hands  of  one  man,  or  of  a  body  of  men,  and 
enables  them  to  fix  a  price  for  it  in  no  way  propor- 
tioned to  what  they  can  afford  to  take,  but  only  to 
what  the  buyer  can  be  induced  to  give.  Or,  briefly, 
it  is  the  command  of  resources  which  enables  a  man 
to  fix  his  own  price. 

Before  we  consider  what  are  the  duties  attaching  to 
this  command  of  resources,  it  is  necessary  to  point  out 
that  monopoly  of  one  kind  or  another,  more  or  less  in 
accordance  with  the  above  definition,  is  a  fact  occurring 
far  more  widely  than  in  the  two  instances  noted  above 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY.  115 

of  legal  and  natural  monopoly.  It  may  be  said  with- 
out paradox,  and  with  a  very  important  degree  of 
practical  truth,  that,  as  owners  of  property,  we  are  all 
monopolists,  morally  responsible  for  the  command  of 
resources  whose  market  value  we,  in  some  degree, 
contribute  to  fix  at  our  own  will.  In  a  ring,  or  trade 
combination,  every  member  of  it  is  plainly  a  joint 
monopolist  with  the  rest.  In  trades  unions  and  labour 
combinations  a  strike  brings  into  play  the  power  of 
a  body  of  monopolists,  who  claim  to  fix  their  own 
prices  in  the  belief  that  they  command  resources 
which  the  rest  of  the  world  cannot  do  without.  And 
in  the  more  informal  combinations  and  common  agree- 
ments, by  which  bodies  of  men  instinctively  agree  on 
the  interest  or  profits  they  will  demand,  or  on  the 
standard  of  comfort  below  which  they  will  not  sink, 
it  is  by  their  power  as  monopolists  that  they  are 
able  to  make  their  own  terms.  Any  considerations, 
therefore,  as  to  the  duties  involved  in  this  unique 
command  of  resources  will  be  in  some  degree  appli- 
cable to  all  members  of  the  economic  body. 

There  is  one  kind  of  systematized  monopoly,  the 
most  important  instance  of  which  should  be  noted,  in 
the  ownership  of  land.  The  rent  of  land  is  a  kind 
of  monopoly  price,  though  it  differs  from  an  ordinary 
monopoly  in  two  important  respects.    It  is  a  monopoly 


Ii6  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

price,  in  so  far  as  it  is  not  a  remuneration  of  any  labour 
of  the  owner,  and  is  therefore  not  proportioned  to 
what  he  can  afford  to  take,  but  to  what  the  tenant 
can  afford  to  give.  It  is  unlike  other  monopolies, 
because  rent  is  not  fixed  at  the  apparently  capricious 
will  of  an  individual,  or  of  a  compact  body  of  men 
acting  in  concert.  It  is  determined  by  competition 
at  the  maximum  which  the  tenant  can  afford  to  pay. 
It  is  unlike  other  monopolies  also,  in  that  the  owner- 
ship of  land  is  an  investment,  whose  returns  have  so 
far  to  be  decided  on  the  same  ground  as  those  of  any 
other  investment.  With  these  qualifications,  however, 
it  remains  true,  that  in  the  enjoyment  of  so  much  of 
his  rent  as  does  not  remunerate  his  own  superin- 
tendence, and  so  come  under  the  head  of  earnings  of 
management,  and  is  not  interest  on  capital  invested 
in  improvements,  a  landowner  is  a  monopolist,  liable 
to  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the  unique  com- 
mand of  resources  which  puts  it  in  his  power  to 
demand  a  price  not  proportioned  to  any  service  done 
for  which  it  is  the  return. 

The  leading  instance,  however,  of  monopoly,  for  a 
consideration  of  the  duties  belonging  to  it,  is  found  in 
the  case  of  the  manager  or  director  of  industry,  who, 
in  the  old  Political  Economy,  was  loosely  called  a 
capitalist.     The  director  or  manager  of  labour  is  a 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY.  117 

monopolist  in  more  senses  than  one.  In  the  first  place, 
he  can,  to  a  large  extent,  command  his  own  price  for 
his  own  brain-work;  to  a  larger  extent  in  proportion  as 
his  mental  or  moral  power  is  greater  or  more  unique. 
In  the  second  place,  he  can  demand  his  price,  not  only 
in  what  is  virtually  his  salary  or  his  wage,  but  in  the 
command  of  resources  which  his  ability  enables  him 
to  secure,  it  may  be,  to  the  loss  of  other  competitors. 
In  the  third  place,  he  is  able,  in  his  command  of 
resources,  to  claim  a  more  or  less  arbitrarily  large 
share  of  the  produce  of  industry  for  the  remuneration 
of  the  service  done  in  the  loan  of  resources.  He  may, 
that  is,  in  particular  instances,  in  his  own  industry, 
influence  the  relative  amount  of  the  produce  which 
goes  to  interest  and  to  wages  respectively.  The  exact 
accuracy  of  this  analysis  of  the  position  of  the  capitalist, 
or  employer  of  labour,  is  not  material  to  our  present 
purpose.  It  is  plain  that  he  has  an  unusually  large 
power,  as  compared  with  other  members  of  the  eco- 
nomic body  who  contribute  to  the  production  of 
wealth,  in  fixing  his  own  remuneration.  It  is  plain, 
further,  that  on  the  principle  on  which  we  have  said 
above,  that  every  man  who  has  any  command  of 
wealth  or  of  resources  for  producing  it  at  all  is,  in 
some  measure,  a  monopolist — on  the  principle  that  the 
division  of  produce  between  the  various  parties  to  its 


ii8  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

production  is  the  issue  of  the  action  of  a  large 
number  of  responsible  wills  and  consciences — the  em- 
ployer of  labour  has  a  larger  individual  responsibility 
than  any  one  else.  It  is  not  denied  that  the  mass 
of  labourers  have  succeeded  in  raising  the  standard 
of  wages;  it  is  not  denied  that,  in  the  struggle  for 
the  division  of  produce,  capital  has  the  advantage 
over  labour  of  greater  mobility,  and  therefore  plays 
the  larger  part  in  determining  the  division  of  produce. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  employer  of  labour  is  the 
person  in  whom  is  concentrated  the  responsibility  of 
wielding  this  command,  this  power  over  the  distribu- 
tion of  produce.  Clearly,  therefore,  we  shall  be  safe 
in  considering  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  the 
capitalist  or  employer  of  labour,  as  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  a  monopolist — of  a  man,  that  is,  who 
has  unique  command  of  resources  such  as  enables  him  in 
no  small  degree  to  fix  his  own  price.  What,  then,  are  the 
moral  principles  governing  the  action  of  a  man  who 
has  such  a  command  of  mental  or  material  resources, 
as  enables  him  in  any  degree  to  fix  his  own  price  ? 

There  are  few  positions  of  power  so  great  as  this, — 
The  privi-  that  a  man  should  be  able  to  calculate  that 
privilege  of    thc  world — his  world,  at  any  rate — cannot 

self-depend- 
ence, gg^  Qjj  without  him.     There  are  few    posi- 
tions in  which  self-dependence  is  so  complete,  as  that 


THE  PRIVILEGE  OF  MONOPOLY,  119 

in  which  a  man  knows  that  he  may  count  upon  the 
needs  of  others  to  bring  his  powers  and  resources  into 
play.  The  mere  consciousness  of  power  breeds  confi- 
dence and  self-dependence.  The  sense  of  having  great 
resources  at  command  gives  a  man  a  certain  strength 
and  self-reliance.  But  there  is  a  peculiar  exaltation 
in  the  knowledge  that  personal  power  and  material 
resources  are  not  merely  ours  to  use  when  we  will, 
but  that  there  is  a  constant  demand  and  desire 
towards  the  treasure  of  which  we  keep  the  key.  Of 
all  forms  of  mastery  none  is  so  proud  as  that  which  is 
built  upon  the  hearts  and  lives  of  men  whose  desire 
is  toward  their  brother.  Self-dependence  is  scarcely 
the  name  for  the  confident  security  of  those  whose 
resources,  personal  or  acquired,  set  them  on  this  pin- 
nacle of  power.  And  yet  self-dependence  describes 
the  distinctive  character  of  their  position.  Contrast 
them  with  all  other  kinds  of  men,  and  they  least  of 
all  depend  on  others  for  the  satisfaction  of  their  needs, 
for  the  choice  of  their  vocation,  or  of  the  surroundings 
of  their  life.  They  can  choose  what  they  shall  be  and 
do;  they  owe  no  man  anything — no  debt,  no  grati- 
tude, no  regard  of  obedience.  Centred  in  themselves 
are  the  resources,  mental  or  material,  which,  because 
they  enable  them  to  command  the  lives  of  other  men, 
enable  them  to   command  their  own.     Who   can  be 


120  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

surprised  that  there  has  appeared  in  the  speculations 
of  socialism  some  tendency  to  rebel  against  the  laws, 
which  put  any  man  in  a  position  where  he  depends  so 
entirely  upon  himself  for  conduct,  by  which  the  lives 
of  other  men  are  profoundly  and  widely  affected  ?  In 
this  country,  at  least,  the  attack  is  not  yet  sufficiently 
threatening  to  provoke  a  very  serious  defence.  The 
defence,  when  it  is  made,  must  resort  to  the  "laws" 
which  produce  as  their  result  the  position  of  the 
capitalist.  A  glance  at  these  laws  will  show  us  the 
Law  by  which  the  man  who  does  occupy  such  a 
position  must  first  of  all  be  governed. 

1.  The  holder  of  a  legal  monopoly  in  ancient  or 
(i)  This  self-  modern  times  can  give  a  very  simple  answer 

dependence  .  ,  .     .     , 

is  a  gift;  to  the  question,  what  has  put  mm  in  the 
position  he  occupies.  The  law  has  done  so ;  and  the 
reason  why  it  has  done  so  is  the  public  advantage. 
In  ancient  times  monopolies  were  often  given,  in  fact, 
to  enrich  the  Government,  but  the  original  purpose 
was,  probably,  to  secure  the  sale  of  a  pure  and  sound 
article,  or  in  some  way  to  serve  the  general  interest  in 
respect  to  its  supply.  And  the  modern  monopoly  of 
patent,  or  copyright,  is  given  because  it  is  considered 
to  be  for  the  public  interest,  that  invention  should  be 
encouraged  by  the  security,  that  the  inventor  should 
himself  enjoy  a  special  benefit  from  what  his  own 
efibrts  have  produced. 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY.  121 

The  holder  of  a  natural  monopoly  will  begin  to 
defend  his  position  by  a  claim  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of 
his  own  efforts,  and  will  then  represent  the  paralysis 
of  effort  which  would  follow  on  any  diminution  of  the 
power  or  wealth,  which  individual  effort  may  hope  to 
have  within  its  reach.  He  will  go  on  to  show  how 
his  position  is  only  attained  by  the  use  of  his  natural 
capacity  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  men,  whose  needs 
will  not  be  studied  without  the  motive  of  the  attain- 
ment of  that  reward,  which  he  claims  the  right  to 
enjoy.  In  other  words,  his  plea  will  be  the  plea  of 
public  advantage. 

What  moral  restraint  arises  out  of  this  justification 
of  a  self-dependent  position  ?  Surely  this :  that  on 
the  very  principle  on  which  the  self-dependence  of 
the  capitalist  is  claimed  and  defended,  it  is  a  gift. 
Not  only  is  it  true,  in  a  moral  consideration  of  the 
position,  that  a  man  owes  to  inheritance  and  educa- 
tion, and,  even  in  the  case  of  the  most  strictly  self- 
made  man,  to  the  organized  society  in  which  he  lives, 
the  whole  of  the  power  which  he  wields;  not  only 
does  he  in  this  way  stand  face  to  face  with  God  as 
the  Giver  of  all  that  he  uses  and  enjoys — in  the 
living  faces  of  the  men  of  his  own  day,  who  make  the 
society  that  has  made  him,  and  in  the  ghostly  faces 
of  men  of  other  days,  with  the  unconscious  enjoy- 


122  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

ment  of  whose  spiritual  bequest  he  is  endowed ; 
beyond  this,  that  same  societ}^  which,  through  the 
action  of  law,  gave  the  old,  and  still  gives  the 
modern  monopolies  for  the  public  good,  assigns  to  him, 
by  its  deliberate  adoption  of  the  system  which  has 
called  him,  the  capitalist,  into  being — assigns  to  him 
the  position  which  he  holds.  Oh  no  ;  it  is  the  laws 
of  Political  Economy  that  have  given  him  his  position ! 
"  Law "  is  a  convenient  general  expression  for  the 
general  action  of  the  wills  of  men.  It  is  the  general 
action  of  the  wills  of  men  which  puts  this  man  in  his 
place.  Law  has  not  given  to  him,  as  to  the  monopolist 
of  older  days,  or  to  the  patentee  of  to-day,  his  power,  his 
rights ;  but  society  has  given  them,  by  the  exercise  of 
that  prerogative  of  allowance  which  sanctions  a  larger 
body  of  human  action  than  law  itself,  and  whose  law- 
making power  is  acknowledged  in  prescription  and 
custom.  The  holder,  therefore,  of  a  natural  monopoly 
occupies  a  self-dependent  position,  because  society 
gives  him  a  self-dependent  position.  His  position  is 
a  gift — a  gift  of  God  he  would,  no  doubt,  allow  in 
words;  a  gift  of  God,  in  fact,  by  the  hands  and  wills 
of  men,  it  is  more  material  that  he  should  both  allow 
and  gravely  consider  it  to  be.  His  position  is  a  gift. 
He  does  not,  therefore,  cease  to  be  self-dependent  ? 
By  no  means.     His  power  is  not  diminished  ?     Not  a 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY.  123 

whit.  He  remains  self-dependent.  But  his  self- 
dependence  is  a  gift ;  and  in  the  mere  fact  that  this 
is  so,  the  whole  moral  complexion  of  his  life  is 
changed.  A  despot  by  Divine  right — though  even  he 
thought  his  power  to  be  a  gift — a  despot  by  Divine 
right,  who  should  learn  and  appreciate  the  fact  that 
he  has  become  a  constitutional  sovereign,  would  not 
have  to  undergo  a  more  complete  change  in  the  esti- 
mate of  his  position  than  the  capitalist  who  has 
revelled  in  a  purely  self-dependent  power,  when  and 
if  he  should  realize  that  his  self-dependence  and  his 
power  are  his,  indeed,  in  truth,  but  are  his  only  by 
the  gift  and  allowance  of  the  society  whose  economic 
life  he  seems  to  sway.  Even  if  there  were  no  further 
moral  consequences  to  be  drawn,  the  mere  fact  that 
his  life  is  rooted,  not  in  himself,  but  in  the  will  of 
others,  would  be  felt  at  once,  most  of  all  by  himself, 
to  alter  his  whole  moral  attitude,  the  estimate  of  his 
duty,  of  his  responsibility,  of  the  privileges  of  his 
position.  It  would  do  so  for  this  one  reason — it  would 
give  him  a  duty ;  not  merely  the  duty  under  which 
we  all  lie,  that  vague  and  shadowy  obligation  which 
we  do  not  realize  by  applying  it  to  the  special  circum- 
stances of  our  own  particular  lives,  but  a  duty 
specific  and  real,  belonging  to  that  very  position 
which  seems,  at   first  sight,   to   fulfil   the   dream  of 


124  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

passion — power  without  responsibility.  He  seemed 
to  be  the  realization  of  a  moral  paradox,  a  man  who 
was  an  unsocial  thing.  With  the  establishment  of  the 
principle  that  his  special  character  is  a  creation  of 
society,  duty  lays  its  iron  hand,  upon  his  soul.  He 
may  not  know  yet  in  what  direction  it  will  force  him 
to  advance,  how  far  it  may  bid  him  recede,  whether 
it  will  turn  him  to  the  right  hand  or  the  left ;  but  it 
has  hold  of  him.  He  has  not  a  duty,  but  his  own 
duty — the  duty  which  belongs  to  a  man,  who,  in  the 
exercise  of  a  unique  and  self-dependent  power,  can 
demand  his  own  price  and  get  it. 

Others  than  himself  have  entered  into  his  life. 
(2)  it  is  a      They    will    maintain    their    moral  footing. 

responsi- 
bility; Others   have   given   him   his    position.     To 

others  he  must  answer  for  it.  His  position  is  a  gift ; 
the  gift  makes  him  liable  to  a  duty  for  whose  fulfil- 
ment he  is  responsible.  Duty  brings  responsibility — 
responsibility  to  God,  no  doubt.  As  with  the  gift, 
so  with  the  responsibility,  it  is  a  cheap  acknow- 
ledgment, if  the  responsibility  acknowledged  to 
God  is  not  realized  in  acknowledged  responsibility  to 
men. 

The  holder  of  a  legal  monopoly  was  responsible  to 
the  Government  who  gave  it.  If  the  Government 
gave  it  for  its  own  gain,  and  the  purpose  of  social 


THE  PRIVILEGE  OF  MONOPOLY.  125 

benefit  was  violated  for  which  in  theory  it  was  given, 
society  asserted  its  rights,  and  the  wisdom  of  the 
Government  was  shown  in  the  withdrawal  of  an 
obnoxious  and  abused  prerogative. 

The  holder  of  what  is  called  a  natural  monopoly  is, 
as  we  have  seen,  no  less  really,  though  less  obviously, 
the  recipient  of  a  gift  from  society.  He  is  no  less 
really,  though  it  may  be  not  legally,  responsible  to 
society  for  his  use  of  its  gift.  In  extreme  cases 
the  misuse  of  monopoly  rights,  in  the  ownership  of 
land,  has  provoked  that  social  condemnation  which 
is  the  lowest  grade  of  social  punishment.  Criminal 
misuse  of  any  economic  position  calls  into  louder 
utterance  that  voice  of  moral  judgment,  whose 
whisper,  at  least,  may  always  be  heard  by  those  who, 
in  less  degree,  abuse  their  economic  rights.  In  pro- 
portion to  the  self-dependence  of  the  individual  is  his 
social  responsibility.  The  more  absolute  his  power, 
the  wider  is  the  range  of  those  who  are  affected  by 
and  have  a  right  to  criticize  its  use,  the  keener  the 
criticism  whose  scrutinizing  eye  scans  the  details  of 
his  economic  conduct,  the  deeper  the  curse  of  condem- 
nation which  is  breathed  over  a  life,  whose  powers  of 
blessing  measure  the  degradation  of  the  spirit  that 
can  neglect  them.  Upon  the  conscience  and  heart  of 
the    man   who   boasts   and   claims   a   self-dependent 


126  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

position,  society  will  rightly  fix  the  stain  of  a  selfish- 
ness too  deep  for  words,  if  he  fails  to  find  in  his 
power  the  reason  and  motive  of  those  weighty  and 
far-reaching  obligations,  which  no  great  power  has 
ever  disregarded  except  to  its  ruin.  From  his  heart 
and  conscience  will  be  demanded  the  spontaneous  flow 
of  the  impulse  towards  that  life  of  beneficence,  as 
wide  as  the  world  from  which  he  gains,  whose  oppor- 
tunities are  patent  to  all  to  whom  his  power  is  a 
wonder,  to  whom  its  use  might  be  made  the  mani- 
festation of  the  glory  of  God. 

Let  him  shrink  from  this  publicity  if  he  can.  Let 
him  close  his  ears  to  the  voice  of  public  opinion,  and 
decline  to  submit  to  the  verdict  of  the  public  con- 
science. The  social  character  of  his  life  pursues  him 
into  the  sanctuary  and  the  solitude  of  his  own  soul. 
It  is  a  solitude  in  which,  because  of  the  myriad  ties 
which  link  his  every  act  with  consequence  of  good  or 
evil  to  men,  he  can  never  be  alone ;  it  is  a  sanctuary 
on  whose  altar,  if  there  do  not  lie  the  offering  of  a  life 
devoted  to  the  good  of  men,  consumed  by  the  fire 
whose  intensity  is  in  proportion  to  the  purity  and 
activity  of  his  human  good  will,  there  shall  smoulder 
devoted  and  accursed,  in  the  slow  flames  of  a  sup- 
pressed remorse,  a  heart  that  strives  in  vain  to  be  so 
cold  and  dead  as  not  to  know  that  the  power  which  is 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY.  127 

not  power  for  good  is  the  power  of  the  worm  that 
cannot  die.  In  the  court  of  his  own  conscience  and 
heart  there  are  gathered  the  ghostly  multitudes  of 
those  whose  living  bodily  needs,  in  that  real  world 
without,  he  feeds  or  disregards,  to  cry,  with  mute 
faces  of  pain,  their  silent  accusation  of  him  before  his 
own  soul,  or  to  reflect,  in  the  gladness  of  those  who 
have  received  the  gift  of  love,  the  blessed  sentence  of 
the  judge  who  sits  enthroned  in  the  chosen  sanctuary 
of  the  Eternal  Love,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful 
servant."  If  it  be  so,  he  has  entered  already  into  the 
joy  of  his  Lord.  If  he  has  learnt  that  his  power  is 
a  gift,  and  that  the  gift  is  a  responsibility  from  which 
he  cannot  escape,  he  has  learnt  more. 

Power,    subject   to   duty   and   responsibility,   may 
seem   to   be   precluded    from    the   pleasure  (3)  above 

all,  it  is  a 

which  belongs  to  power.  The  pleasure  of  privilege. 
power  is  the  pleasure  of  freedom,  and  duty  and 
responsibility  bring  restraint.  The  self-dependent  man 
revels  in  being  able  to  do  as  he  likes.  Duty  marks 
him  out  a  narrow  road,  and  warns  him  from  straying 
to  the  right  or  to  the  left.  Responsibility  realizes  the 
restraint  of  duty,  where  conscience  coincides  in  and  re- 
echoes the  reproof  of  public  judgment.  But  with  the 
enforcement  of  the  duty  comes  the  appreciation  of  the 
privilege  of  help.     The  pleasure  of  self-dependence  is 


128  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

in  power — but  in  power  to  do  what  ?  The  pleasure  of 
caprice  is  evanescent.  Mere  power  ceases  to  be  plea- 
sant, unless  it  has  a  definite  direction  towards  the 
definite  attainment  of  an  end,  habitually  chosen  and 
deliberately  taken  as  the  object  of  desire.  Power 
finds  limits  to  its  exercise  in  every  direction  but 
one.  All  the  pleasures  of  self-aggrandizement  in  self- 
indulgence  or  in  pride  create  a  craving  which  grows 
greater,  and  is  satisfied  less,  as  life  goes  on.  Pleasure 
in  the  exercise  of  power  is,  while  it  lasts,  better  and 
higher  than  pleasure  in  the  gratification  of  desire. 
But  power  does  not  rise  to  the  level  of  privilege,  can- 
not be  appreciated  as  a  gift  or  realized  as  a  responsi- 
bility, until  it  sets  itself  an  end,  partial  failure  in 
whose  attainment  is  the  root,  not  of  disappointment, 
but  of  humility  and  hope;  where  "life  succeeds,  in 
that  it  seems  to  fail;"  and  human  power  loses  itself, 
as  it  is  absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  the  purposes  of 
the  age-long  work  of  that  eternal  power,  of  which 
it  is  born,  to  which  it  has  bowed  itself  in  the 
acceptance  of  a  law,  by  which  it  is  blessed  with  the 
privilege  of  the  life,  that  blesses  those  that  give  and 
those  that  take.  The  freedom  of  self-dependence  is 
not  lost.  Freedom  is  of  the  essence  of  privilege. 
Privilege  is  a  freedom  which  is  a  gift ;  it  is  no 
imagined  creation  of  wilful  caprice  and  unrestrained 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY.  129 

desire ;  it  is  bom  amid  the  blessings  of  dependence, 
and  nurtured  in  the  obedience  of  love.  Its  freedom  is 
not  in  licence,  but  in  the  liberty  of  a  law  which  has 
become  the  life  of  the  soul,  the  heai-t  and  spirit  of  its 
high  desire.  And  this  law  is  the  law  of  help  and 
love,  a  law  whose  restraint  is  chosen  and  its  obedience 
willing,  a  love  which  moves  along  the  lines  of  the 
impulse  which  is  the  privilege  of  souls  to  whom  the 
promise  is  fulfilled,  "  I  will  set  My  law  in  their 
hearts,  and  in  their  minds  will  I  write  them." 

There  are  many  lives  in  which  this  spirit  is  at 
work,  which  takes  all  the  powers  and  opportunities 
of  life  as  God's  gift,  to  be  used  subject  to  His  law, 
that  men  may  learn  in  them  the  supreme  privilege 
of  help.  Such  men  never  fail  of  the  exercise  of 
their  privilege,  for  want  of  opportunities  adequate 
to  the  manifestation  of  its  glory  and  its  blessing. 
Yet  they  are  hampered  by  limitations  of  power, 
haunted  by  visions  of  infinite  usefulness,  far  beyond 
the  instruments  and  occasions  with  which  it  has 
pleased  God  to  allow  men  to  bless  them.  What 
would  not  such  men  give  to  have  the  use  but  for  a 
day  of  the  powers  and  opportunities — powers  wasted 
and  spent  in  works  of  evil,  opportunities  that  lie  idle 
along  the  path  of  dull  and  heartless  lives — of  those 
who  might  realize  and  enjoy  a  privilege  beyond  all 

K 


I30  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

dreams  ?  It  may  be  a  visionary  hope,  it  may  be  a 
vicious  imagination,  that  society  should  find  means  to 
enforce  upon  those  who  neglect  this  privilege  the 
performance  of  the  duties,  which,  to  the  world's  loss 
and  their  own,  they  blindly  or  wilfully  neglect.  But 
suppose  for  a  moment  that  it  could  come  true — that 
some  law  could  be  enacted  v/hich,  without  sapping 
the  roots  of  freedom,  or  robbing  helpful  lives  of  the 
felicity  of  choice,  could  exercise  a  pressure  so  gentle 
and  so  sure,  or  hold  up  an  ideal  of  such  a  winning 
and  cogent  fascination,  that  the  man  on  whom  these 
are  bestowed  as  a  gift,  and  laid  as  a  burden  of  duty, 
should  be  forced  and  drawn,  in  every  detail  of  life, 
into  the  full  and  willing  exercise  of  the  privilege  that 
they  convey.  It  is  no  imagination.  The  law  is  an 
eternal  truth,  its  enactment  is  a  present  fact.  The 
law  of  love  and  help  is  from  everlasting  ;  it  wells  out 
of  the  very  heart  of  God,  from  the  day  when,  out  of 
the  infinite  resources  of  His  power  and  His  love,  His 
wisdom  made  the  worlds.  It  is  written  on  the  open 
arms  of  the  Cross,  where  He  hung.  Who,  being  in  the 
form  of  God,  thought  it  not  a  prize  to  be  equal  with 
God,  but  poured  forth  His  soul  in  service  and  suffer- 
ing for  the  love  of  men.  It  is  stamped  upon  the  heart 
and  conscience  of  man,  made  in  the  image  of  the 
Eternal  Love,  consecrated  to  the   fellowship   of  the 


THE  PRIVILEGE   OF  MONOPOLY.  131 

service  of  Christ  and  the  sacrifice  of  the  Cross.  It  is 
the  everlasting  hope,  the  resource  that  never  fails 
the  hearts  and  wills  of  those,  who  have  learnt,  in  the 
knowledge  of  God  in  Christ,  that  the  privilege  of 
infinite  power  is  the  privilege  of  help. 


VII. 
THE   PRODUCE   OF  THE   PAST. 

If  a  man  wishes  to  provide  for  himself,  or  for  those 
In  invest-      for  whom  he  cares,  a  certain  means  of  sub- 

ments  we  ,  i  n      ^  r      •  •  i 

look  for        sistence,  he   nnds  a  safe  investment,  ^.6.  he 

(i)  security, 

terest^^We  P^ovides  resources  for  the  production  of 
for^(i)L°goCd  some   commodity,  on   the  constant  need  of 

object,  (2) 

just  interest,  wjiich  he  may  securely  count.  All  labour 
for  the  satisfaction  of  any  need  requires,  besides  the 
mere  labour  itself,  and  the  mind  and  will  that  direct 
it,  a  certain  command  of  resources,  of  the  results  of 
past  labour.  The  powers  of  mind  and  will  which 
direct  and  manage  labour  are  not  within  the  gift  of 
man.  These  command  the  direction  in  which  re- 
sources already  provided  by  labour  shall  be  applied. 
But  the  resources  themselves  are,  in  any  case,  sure  to 
be  required.  They  may  be  gained  in  greater  or  less 
amount  by  any  labour,  and  once  gained,  they  are  a 
certain  source  of  further  gain.     It  is  with  the  duties 


THE  PRODUCE   OF  THE  PAST.  133 

incident  to  the  possession  of  resources,  the  fruit  of 
past  labour  needed  for  present  labour,  that  we  have 
now  to  do. 

Money  which  can  be,  or  is  invested,  is  the  symbol 
of  these  resources.  A  very  large  proportion  of  the 
community  live  on  money  so  invested — live,  that  is, 
on  the  payment  received  for  resources  provided  by 
past  for  present  labour.  Most  of  those  who  so  live, 
and  rejoice  in  the  security  of  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence given  to  them  by  the  possession  of  the  resources 
which  present  labour  always  needs,  are  guided  as 
to  the  destination  of  the  funds  at  their  command  by 
two  considerations  only.  They  ask  what  investments 
are  safe ;  they  ask  what  investments  pay  the  highest 
interest ;  they  look,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  quality 
and  to  the  quantity  of  the  return  they  are  to 
obtain. 

It  is  to  this  large  class  in  the  community  that  we 
have  to  propose  another  question.  What  ought  you 
to  obtain  in  return  for  the  resources  you  provide  ? 
As  to  quality,  we  shall  have  to  ask  them  not  only  to 
look  to  the  security  that  the  industry  they  assist 
will  continue  to  give  them  the  means  of  subsistence, 
but  to  ask  further,  whether  the  industry  be  of 
such  a  kind  that  it  deserves  return  at  all.  As  to 
quantity,  we  shall  ask  them  to  consider  what  amount 


134  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

of  the  produce  of  labour  is  fairly  due  to  those  who 
provide  the  resources  needed  for  labour.  Is  the  use 
to  which  they  put  their  resources  good  ?  Is  the 
amount  they  gain  from  them  just?  And  in  order  to 
answer  these  two  questions,  we  have  first  to  ask 
another,  Why  have  they  a  right  to  a  share  in  the 
produce  of  labour  at  all  ? 

1.  All  labour  needs  certain  resources  to  start  with. 
(OThe        These  resources  may  be  either  provided  by 

reasons  why  *'  \.  %i 

entidedto  naturc,  unassisted  by  human  effort,  or  they 
all,  may   be  the   result   of  human   labour.      It 

seems  clear  that,  in  so  far  as  they  are  provided  by 
nature,  they  should  be  open  to  all ;  and  that,  in  so 
far  as  they  are  the  result  of  human  labour,  they  are 
rightly  at  the  disposal  of  the  individual  will,  and  for 
the  satisfaction  of  individual  desire.  The  labour,  that 
is,  that  has  provided  them,  should  in  this  case  be  paid 
like  other  human  labour. 

Of  these  two  principles,  I  am  content  to  leave 
the  first — that  resources,  in  so  far  as  they  are  natural, 
should  be  open  to  all — without  justification.  The 
second,  that  resources,  in  so  far  as  they  are  the  result 
of  human  labour,  should  be  paid  for,  needs  some 
justification.  The  labour  that  produced  them  has, 
in  the  natural  course  of  events,  been  paid  once ;  why 
should  it  be  paid   any  more  ?     The  answer  to   this 


THE  PRODUCE   OF  THE  PAST.  135 

question  seems  to  be,  that  human  labour,  like  the 
labour  of  nature,  is  infinitely  productive.  The  ques- 
tion of  the  right  of  those  who  provide  the  resources 
of  labour  to  anything  more  than  the  repayment  of 
what  they  provide,  has  sometimes  been  treated  as 
though  the  circumstances  out  of  which  it  arose  were 
merely  those  of  greater  or  less  physical  capacity  and 
moral  effort.  But  even  in  an  ideally  perfect  moral 
community,  where  all  the  members  of  the  economic 
body  laboured,  so  as  to  have,  not  only  something  to 
live  on,  but  something  to  save,  there  would  still  be 
room  for  the  remuneration  of  past  labour  as  past. 

If  we  suppose  the  individual  man  to  turn  to 
account,  as  material  for  his  present  labour,  the  pro- 
duce of  his  past  labour,  it  will  plainly  be  the  case 
that  the  amount  of  produce  which  he  gains  as  the 
result  of  his  labour  in  one  year,  will  make  his 
labour  in  the  next  year  more  productive  than  it 
would  otherwise  have  been.  His  labour  of  last  year, 
already  paid  in  produce,  Avill  go  on  being  paid  this 
year,  in  the  increased  produce  which  will  reward 
this  year's  labour,  because  it  has  at  its  command 
the  result  of  last  year's  labour.  And,  quite  apart 
from  the  irregularities  produced  by  the  varieties  of 
energy  and  sloth,  of  thrift  and  self-indulgence,  there 
will  be   room   for  the   exchange,    between    one    and 


136  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

another  of  the  ideal  members  of  the  moral  economic 
system,  of  the  produce  of  their  labour  in  the  past, 
with  the  possibilities  which  present  labour  may 
realize  from  it,  no  less  than  of  the  produce  of  their 
present  labour  itself. 

Past  labour,  then,  no  less  than  present  labour, 
deserves  its  reward.  It  should  be  paid  in  proportion 
to  its  relative  value  in  comparison  with  present 
labour,  just  as  different  kinds  of  present  labour  should 
be  paid  in  proportion  to  their  relative  value,  deter- 
mined by  their  comparison  one  with  another. 

This  account  of  the  matter,  however,  leaves  two 
important  questions  to  be  determined.  First,  in  the 
provision  of  resources  for  the  labour  of  to-day,  how 
much  is  to  be  credited  to  nature,  and  received  as 
a  gift ;  how  much  is  to  be  paid  for  as  the  produce  of 
the  labour  of  the  past  ?  And,  secondly,  how  is  past 
labour  to  be  weighed  against  present  labour?  How 
are  we  to  know  what  proportion  of  the  produce  of 
present  labour  is  to  go  in  wages  for  this  labour  itself, 
and  what  proportion  is  to  reward  the  past  labour 
that  provides  the  resources  which  present  labour 
needs  ? 

As  to  the  first  question,  how  far  the  resources  now 
afforded  to  the  labour  of  to-day  are  to  be  taken  as 
the   gift   of    nature,   and    how   far    they   are   to   be 


THE  PRODUCE   OF  THE  PAST.  137 

credited  to  the  labour  of  the  past,  the  obvious  remark 
to  be  made  is,  that  any  formal  distinction  is  im- 
possible. Natural  resources  do  not  become  available 
as  the  subject  of  human  labour  at  all,  until  such 
amount,  at  least,  of  human  labour  is  spent  upon  them 
as  is  involved  in  the  selection  of  this  kind  of  matter, 
or  this  kind  of  ground,  rather  than  another.  And 
from  the  first  moment  of  selection,  appropriation,  and 
enclosure,  natural  gift  and  human  labour  become  in- 
extricably fused.  To  labour  only  does  nature  render 
up  her  gifts.  Only  with  the  gifts  of  nature  does 
labour  become  productive,  or  exist  at  all.  There  is 
no  formal  distinction  possible,  between  the  amount 
and  kind  of  resources  which  are  the  gift  of  nature 
and  those  which  are  the  result  of  the  labour  of  men. 
The  only  practical  inference  which  can  be  drawn 
from  the  double  source  of  the  material  labour  of  to- 
day, is  the  twofold  inference  that  the  labour  of  the 
past  should  continue  to  be  rewarded  out  of  the  labour 
of  the  present,  and  that  the  labour  of  the  present 
should  never  be  actually  or  virtually  denied  access 
to  what  is  in  part  the  produce  of  past  labour,  but  in 
part  also  the  gift  of  nature. 

As  to  the  relative  value,  again,  of  the  labour  of  the 
present,  and  of  that  labour  of  the  past  which  provides 
it  with  its  necessary  material  and  resources,  no  formal 


138  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

definition  can  be  made.  It  is  plain  that  as  the  relative 
value  of  the  produce  of  different  kinds  of  present 
labour  will  vary  from  time  to  time,  on  any  and  every 
theory  of  the  nature  of  value,  so  will  the  relative 
value  of  past  and  present  labour. 

It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  right  of  the  man 
who  provides  resources  for  labour  to  a  share  in  its 
produce  is  identical  with  the  right  of  labour  to  its 
wage  ;  but  that  it  is  a  general  character  of  this 
right,  that  it  must  be  measured,  not  by  any  formal 
law,  but  by  the  agreement  of  the  conscience  and 
judgment  of  those  who  are  parties  to  the  exchange. 
If  this  be  true  at  all,  it  is  impossible  to  insist  upon 
it  too  strongly.  If  it  is  denied,  it  will  be  denied  upon 
one  of  two  grounds.  The  claims  of  past  labour  may 
be  denied ;  but  this  will  be  only  on  the  principle 
which  denies  to  present  labour  its  future  wage.  Or 
it  may  be  affirmed  that  the  relative  share  of  past  and 
present  labour  is  to  be  determined  by  the  relative 
need  of  each  member  in  the  exchange,  by  the  need  of 
the  past  labourer  to  reap  the  continued  fruit  of  his 
labour,  and  of  the  present  labourer  to  have  the 
resources  which  enable  him  to  exercise  his  powers. 
But  this  latter  objection  only  attempts  to  state  in 
non-moral  terms  the  moral  fact  of  the  interdependence 
one  on  another  of  the  labour  of  the  past  and  of  the 


THE  PRODUCE   OF  THE  PAST.  139 

present.  If  each  needs  the  other,  each  is  responsible 
to  and  for  the  other — each  to  each  for  their  common 
use  of  the  resources  of  social  life,  each  for  each  to  God, 
"Who  has  made  each  his  brother's  keeper. 

These,  then,  are  the  considerations  to  which  we  must 
look,  if  we  would  determine  what  is  right  as  to  draw- 
ing income  from  investments.  You  are  entitled  to  an 
income  at  all  on  precisely  the  same  grounds  that  a 
labourer  is  entitled  to  his  wages,  viz.,  that  you  do, 
or  help  to  do  good  work.  You  are  entitled  to  this  or 
that  amount  as  the  amount  which  conscience — yours 
and  that  of  the  other  party  to  the  contract — assigns  to 
you,  as  your  just  share  of  the  produce  of  the  present 
labour  which,  in  virtue  of  your  ownership  of  the 
rights  of  past  labour,  you  are  able  to  assist. 

2.  As  to  the  character  of  the  work  from  whose 
profits  we  draw  interest,  where  the  business  (2)  show  that 

you  are 

is  one  which  plainly  panders  to  vice,  or  lives  J'hat"th?  ^^^ 
by  the  oppression  of  labour,  the  right  and  wSyoT 
wrong  of  the  matter  is  beyond  question.  Few  good, 
are  willing  to  live  avowedly  on  a  share  in  the  proceeds 
of  vice  or  oppression.  The  question  is,  how  far  will 
the  principle  carry  us  which  is  involved  in  this  reluc- 
tance ?  What  of  a  business  which  panders,  not  to 
vice,  but  to  low  and  degraded  tastes  ?  What  of  a 
business  which  is  ready  to  meet  any  tastes,  whether 


I40  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

they  be  low  and  degraded  or  not  ?  What  of  house 
property,  where,  if  the  rents  are  not  the  proceeds  of 
overcrowding  in  unsanitary  dwellings,  they  are  the 
price  paid  for  an  ill-built  and  comfortless  tenement  ? 
You  would  not  take  shares  in  a  company  of  sweating 
tailors.  What  of  the  industry  from  whose  produce 
you  do  receive  your  income  ?  Is  it  justly  paid  ?  If 
you  refuse  to  live  on  the  proceeds  of  actual  vice  and 
oppression,  does  not  this  mean  that  you  acknowledge 
an  obligation  to  live  only  on  the  proceeds  of  work 
that  does  good  and  is  good  ?  Does  not  this  mean  an 
obligation  to  know  whether  the  work  on  whose 
proceeds  you  live  is  good  or  not,  to  discern  between 
good  and  better,  and  to  choose  the  best  ?  The  idea 
of  such  an  obligation  seems  strange.  There  are  many 
investments  to  which  it  would  appear  to  be  in- 
applicable. And  there  is  no  machinery  for  applying 
it  to  the  rest,  and  for  ascertaining,  not  merely  whether 
an  investment  pays  well  and  is  safe,  but  whether 
the  production  which  is  safe  to  pay  is  a  production 
of  good,  and  a  production  by  good  methods. 

The  idea  of  an  obligation  to  discern  between 
morally  good  and  bad  investments  would  seem  in- 
applicable, for  instance,  to  Government  stocks.  The 
fact  that  it  would  seem  so  is  worth  considering  in 
itself,  even  though  here  the  obligations  of  the  drawer 


THE  PRODUCE   OF  THE  PAST.  141 

of  interest  differ  only  in  principle  from  those  of  the 
citizen.  Each  is  bound  to  see  that,  so  far  as  in  him 
lies,  the  life  of  the  State  is  governed  by  the  aim  at 
good  ends,  and  carried  on  by  honest  methods ;  the 
one,  because,  as  a  member  of  the  State,  he  bears  his 
share  of  the  responsibility  for  the  public  acts  of  the 
body  to  which  he  belongs  ;  the  other,  because  he  takes 
pay  from  the  nation  for  helping  in  what  is  done. 
But  this  latter  obligation  deserves  attention  for  its 
own  sake.  English  investors  have  helped  by  their 
loans,  and  been  paid  by  interest  for  helping,  other 
Governments  than  their  own.  It  will  be  allowed  to 
be  open  to  question  whether,  by  so  doing,  they  have 
not  helped  to  keep  standing  what  had  better  have 
been  allowed  to  fall;  whether  their  income  has  not 
been  drawn  from  methods  of  government  and  taxation 
which,  if  they  had  known  them,  might  have  disturbed 
their  rest.  Investments  in  the  Funds  are  the  taking 
on  of  debt  originally  incurred  for  specific  purposes — 
as,  for  instance,  for  the  wars  of  the  last  two  centuries 
— in  which  we  cannot  be  considered  to  take  on  the 
responsibility.  But  the  general  purpose  which  covered 
all  of  these  is  the  maintenance  of  the  national  life ; 
and  when  we  draw  interest  on  loans  to  our  own 
Government,  we  do  incur  a  fresh  responsibility  for 
the  methods  by  which  now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the 


142  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

nation  pays  its  way.  The  national  life  is,  in  one 
aspect  of  it,  a  commercial  concern,  and  the  man  who 
takes  pay  for  assisting  in  the  processes  by  which  it 
is  carried  on,  has  a  moral  interest  in  the  end  at  which 
from  time  to  time  it  aims,  in  the  justice  of  the  wages 
it  pays,  in  the  general  moral  character  of  the  methods 
by  which  its  ends  are  pursued.  There  are  a  vast 
number  of  quiet  and  ignorant  people,  who  may  invest 
their  money  in  the  Funds  in  a  general  faith  that  to 
help  the  Government  is  an  honourable  and  praise- 
worthy employment  of  wealth.  It  becomes,  then,  an 
additional  duty  for  ordinary  citizens  to  see  that 
Government  work  is  done  in  accordance  with  prin- 
ciples which,  if  the  investor  were  brought  face  to  face 
with  them,  he  ought  to  approve. 

But  if  it  seems  absurd  to  suppose  that  the  ordinary 
man  should  concern  himself  with  this  responsibility, 
it  seems  even  more  paradoxical  to  say  that  such  an 
oblisfation  can  be  reojarded  in  other  investments.  It 
seems  paradoxical,  not  so  much  because  the  obligation 
to  draw  profit  from  work  that  serves  a  good  end  by 
worthy  means  is  in  itself  in  any  way  absurd,  but 
because  the  fulfilment  of  the  obligation  seems  to  be 
absolutely  impossible.  We  shall  come  across  a  similar 
difficulty  in  dealing  with  the  moral  question  as  to 
buying  cheap  goods. 


THE  PRODUCE   OF  THE  FAST.  143 

The  answer  to  the  difficulty  I  believe  to  be,  that 
we  do  not  see  how  to  ascertain  whether  any  com- 
mercial concern,  to  which  we  may  contribute  the 
support  of  a  loan,  is  a  business  whose  end  and  methods 
we  can  approve,  because  we  do  not  want  to  ascertain 
it.  I  plead  that  a  man  is  bound,  if  he  takes  part 
of  the  profits  of  a  business,  to  know,  not  only  that  the 
business  is  safe  to  pay,  but  that  it  deserves  to  pay. 
The  answer  amounts  to  this  :  No  one  thinks  of  asking 
as  to  an  investment  any  other  questions  than,  "  Is  it 
safe  ? "  and  "  How  much  interest  does  it  pay  ? "  The 
obligation  is  not  cancelled  by  an  assertion  that  no  one 
regards  it,  and  the  difficulty  of  fulfilling  it  is  at  once 
amply  accounted  for  and  removed.  If  people  want  to 
know  whether  the  business  by  which  they  profit  is 
good  or  not,  and  will  not  invest  in  it  until  they  do 
know,  it  will  become  the  interest  of  the  managers  of 
the  business  to  let  them  know.  In  the  progress 
towards  the  fulfilment  of  any  unfulfilled  duty,  towards 
the  attainment  of  any  unattained  ideal,  the  steps  are 
taken  by  individual  consciences  and  wills — consciences 
which  refuse  to  be  blinded,  and  wills  which  refuse 
to  be  baffled,  by  difficulties  such  as  only  challenge 
the  force  of  the  will  to  carry  through  into  practice 
principles,  whose  intrinsic  truth  and  absolute  obliga- 
tion no  difficulties  can  aflfect. 


144  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

3.  What  rate  of  interest  ought  you  to  expect  and 
receive,  given  that  you  have  ascertained  that  you  are 
(3)  and  that  to  rcccive  it  from  a  worthy  source  ?     What 

the  return  "^ 

itTsfuchTs  ought  to  be  your  payment  for  providing 
yVu/dL.  the  resources  needed  for  productive  work  ? 
This  is  primarily  a  question  for  the  direct  employer 
of  labour.  But  the  employer  of  labour  has  to  hire 
resources,  as  well  as  to  hire  labourers,  and  in  his 
personal  judgment  the  demands  of  the  holders  of 
resources  contend  with  the  demands  of  labourers  for 
their  share  of  the  produce.  As  to  this  contest  there 
are  two  remarks  to  be  made. 

(1)  It  is  broadly  true  to  say  that  it  is  a  contest 
between  those  who  demand  the  means  of  subsistence, 
on  the  one  side,  and  those  who  demand  the  means  of 
more  comfortable  subsistence  on  the  other.  This  fact 
is  morally  significant  in  itself,  and  affects  the  question 
how  far  it  is  right  to  swell  the  pressure  of  a  demand 
for  high  interest.  But  its  moral  significance  is  in- 
creased when  we  realize  that  the  demand  of  capital 
for  employment — partly  because  it  is  more  easily 
transferred,  partly,  for  this  very  reason,  that  it  can 
wait  for  what  it  demands — has  the  advantage  in  the 
struggle  over  the  demand  of  labour  for  the  employ- 
ment on  which  the  labourer  lives.  And  this  advan- 
tage is  derived  from  the  command  by  the  individual 


THE  PRODUCE  OF  THE  PAST.  145 

of  resources  which  are  in  large  measure  the  result 
of  the  past  labour,  not  of  the  individual,  but  of 
the  society.  Their  fruitfulness  is  the  best  gift  of  the 
ages  of  labour  that  are  gone  by.  It  is  a  gift  of  the 
past  to  the  present,  transmitted  through  individual 
hands  which  can  claim  payment  for  the  gift,  but 
in  truth  a  common  heritage,  due  to  the  growth  of 
faculties  and  the  organization  of  industrial  society. 
This  suggests  what  should  be  the  ruling  spirit  of 
the  economic  action  of  those,  who  do  hold  as  indi- 
vidual possessions  any  part  of  the  produce  of 
past  labour,  such  as  present  labour  has  need  to 
buy.  This  spirit  is  the  spirit  of  gift  to  need.  He 
who  has  received  a  gift,  and  lives  on  a  gift,  owes 
a  gift. 

We  have  said  that  there  is  an  obligation  to  invest 
only  in  industries  whose  products  and  methods  are 
good  in  themselves.  Is  there  not  also  an  obligation 
to  choose  for  investment  those  industries  which  need 
help  most,  even  if  they  cannot  pay  the  highest  price 
for  it,  and  to  make  a  gift  of  the  denial  of  increased 
luxury  or  comfort  which  is  involved  in  the  choice  ? 
Is  there  not  an  obligation  to  aid  the  maintenance  of 
a  standard  of  luxury  in  those  who  live  at  ease,  such 
as  shall  allow  for  the  growth  of  the  standard  of  true 
comfort   in  those  who   live  by  labour,  paid    out   of 

L 


146  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

what  is  left   from  the    satisfaction   of  the   demands 
of  ease  ? 

(2)  This  remark  applies  to  all,  or  nearly  all,  who 
live  on  the  interest  of  investments.  There  is  another 
remark  to  be  made  concerning  those  to  whom  it  is 
open  to  raise  the  question,  How  long  shall  I  go  on 
building  up  further  gains  out  of  the  payment  I  can 
get  for  lending  the  resources  which  represent  what 
I  have  already  gained  ?  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
duty  does  not  diminish,  but  increase,  with  the  increase 
of  wealth,  to  use  wealth  productively.  But  there  is 
surely  doubt  whether  the  desire  for  more  should  be 
allowed,  in  the  case  of  those  who  have  more  than 
enough,  to  maintain  a  competition  for  the  largest 
share  it  can  get  in  the  purchase  of  labour,  either  with 
the  labourers  to  whom  accumulated  resources  help  to 
give  employment,  or  with  holders  of  resources  whose 
need  is  greater.  Might  not  those  who  hold  resources 
at  their  command  in  such  quantity  as  this,  consider 
whether  some  of  the  many  doubtful  enterprises  or  unre- 
munerative  tasks,  which  cry  aloud  to  be  undertaken 
for  the  good  of  the  community,  do  not  lie  within  the 
sphere  of  absolute  obligation  for  them  ?  The  poor  we 
have  always  with  us.  There  will  never  fail  to  be  sin 
enough  to  breed  weakness  and  want ;  but  the  position 
of  the  very  rich,  if  every  increase  of  their  riches  is  to 


THE  PRODUCE   OF  THE  PAST  147 

be  the  means  of  further  increase,  is,  to  say  the  least  of 
it,  a  moral  paradox.  If  giving  is  not  to  be  the  ruling 
spirit  of  their  lives,  it  will  be  hard  to  assign  any 
meaning  at  all  to  the  saying,  that  "  it  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive." 


VIII. 
WEALTH. 

"  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth." 

S.  Matt.  vi.  19. 

The  Law  of  Christ  is  prone  to  disguise,  though  the 
What  is  th  disguise  is  always  such  as  to  provoke  inquiry. 
iSmptibie  C)ne  form  which  is  taken  by  truth  in  this 
tendency  to  disguise  is  parable.  Another, 
is  that  taken  by  the  truth  in  the  text — negation. 
Behind  the  negation,  as  behind  the  picture  of  the 
parable,  lurks  the  truth  to  be  expressed. 

The  truth  to  be  expressed  here  is  the  Law  of  God 
as  to  wealth  ;  and  the  Christian  principle  as  to 
wealth  is  taught  first  by  a  negative.  "  Lay  not  up 
for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth."  Not  upon  earth  ? 
Where  else  ?  Treasure  surely  belongs  to  earth.  Not 
where  moth  and  rust  corrupt  ?  What  should  treasure 
be  but  corruptible  ?  It  is  an  earthly  thing,  of  course  ; 
it  has  to  do  with  earthly  things — with  prudence,  and 


WEALTH,  149 

comfort,  and  ease,  and  all  the  things  of  this  world 
which  pass  away.  Treasure  in  heaven  ?  Wealth  in 
heaven  ?  What  have  treasure  or  wealth  to  do  with 
heaven  ?  These  banks,  and  shops,  and  warehouses, 
and  docks — what  have  they  to  do  with  heaven  ? 
What  would  your  friend  say  when  you  met  him 
to-morrow  morning,  hurrying  along  the  pavement 
with  his  rapid  business  walk,  if  you  gravely  dropped 
a  word  hinting  at  some  distant  connection  between 
wealth  and  heaven  ?  He  might  be  inclined  to  say 
that,  as  to  laying  up  treasure  in  heaven,  he  had  been 
about  that  sort  of  business  to-day,  and  that,  at  any 
rate,  his  week-day  business  was  to  lay  up  treasure  on 
earth.  And  yet  our  Lord's  command  is  not  "Lay 
up  treasures  on  earth  for  six  days  in  the  week  as 
much  as  you  like,  provided  you  lay  up  treasures  in 
heaven  on  the  seventh  day;"  it  is,  "Lay  not  up 
treasures  on  earth."  And  it  is  the  truth  contained 
in  these  forbidding  words  with  which  we  have  to 
deal. 

If  the  latter  part  of  the  sentence  stood  by  itself, 
*'  Lay  up  for  yourselves  treasures  in  heaven,"  we 
might  mistake  it  for  a  mere  metaphorical  expression  ; 
but  as  it  is,  the  two  parts,  the  prohibition  and  the 
command,  plainly  refer  to  the  same  subject-matter ; 
they   describe    alternate   ways   of  dealing  with  the 


ISO  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

same  thing.  They  refer  to  wealth;  they  command 
the  making  of  wealth  an  object,  but  with  a  difference 
— in  heaven.  So  that  this  saying  of  our  Lord,  so 
far  from  establishing  a  distinction  between  earthly 
and  heavenly  concerns,  cancels  and  obliterates  that 
distinction. 

"  Wealth  in  heaven."  These  hurrying  crowds  that 
will  course  in  interlacing  lines  down  these  streets  to- 
morrow under  the  shadow  of  the  dome,  are  every 
one  of  them  trying  to  lay  up  treasures,  to  lay  up 
wealth — in  heaven  or  not  ?  Every  soul  in  this  cathe- 
dral^ is  laying  up  wealth,  or  living  on  wealth  laid 
up — in  heaven  or  not  ? 

Wealth  is  an  object.  We  are  commanded  to  pursue 
it ;  we  are  commanded  to  "  lay  up  treasures."  Nay, 
we  are  commanded  by  the  instincts  of  our  nature, 
responding  to  the  necessities  of  life.  The  desire,  the 
instinct  to  seek  for  wealth  is  universal ;  it  produces 
results  more  wonderful,  more  amazing  than  almost 
anything  else  in  God's  wonderful  world.  We  have 
gathered  together  this  year,^  for  show,  away  west 
from  here,  some  of  the  various  products  of  the  desire 
for  wealth — the  things  that  men  treasure — from  all 
parts  of  our  empire.     We  walk  through  that  exhi- 

^  Preached  at  S.  Paul's  Cathedral. 

2  The  year  of  the  Indian  and  Colonial  Exhibition. 


WEALTH.  ISI 

bibion  with  wonder.  But  what  is  this,  the  wonder 
(^f  the  eye,  to  the  far  greater  wonder  of  the  vast 
and  intricate  system  of  modern  industry  and  trade  ? 
Think  of  it — its  vastness,  world-wide,  its  intricate 
complexity,  its  rapid  movements,  its  tremendous 
result.  All  of  it  is  animated  by  one  motive — the  desire 
to  lay  up  wealth,  to  lay  up  treasure — in  heaven  or 
not  ?  What  is  the  character  of  our  desire  for  wealth 
as  a  nation,  or  as  individuals  ?  We  know  when 
trade  is  depressed.  Do  we  ask  if  it  is  degraded  ?  We 
know  when  industry  is  unemployed.  Do  we  see 
when  it  is  perverted  ?  If  we  asked  these  questions, 
we  might  find  the  answer  better,  as  well  as  worse, 
than  we  expect.  But  the  question  I  want  you  to 
answer  is,  What  is  the  character  of  the  desire  for 
wealth  which  our  Lord  commands  ?  Not  on  earth. 
He  says,  but  in  heaven — and  to  explain  and  give  the 
reason  for  this — not  corruptible,  but  incorruptible. 

1.  What  is  wealth — the  wealth  we  seek,  the  wealth 
we   desire  ?      The    first   and    most    obvious      ,, 

I.  Money? 

answer    is,    money.       And    money    is    not  ^ypei^^^ 

.     n  •!  1  i  1  T    •  wealth  liable 

especially  corruptible.     Among  the  qualities  to  decay,  as 
which    recommend   the   precious  metals    as  con"d?tion^of 
standards  of  value  and  means  of  exchange,  ""  '^^" 
one  is  their  durability.     And  yet  our  Lord's  words 
claim  these  metals,  like  all  earthly  things,  as  subject  to 


152  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

the  law  of  decay.  The  process  of  decay  is  slow ;  but 
time  is  long,  and  it  is  in  the  view  of  eternity  that 
He  is  testing  the  value  of  wealth.  But,  in  fact,  in  any 
true  view  of  value,  mere  money,  if  you  take  that  for 
wealth,  is  dead  long  before  its  lustre  is  dimmed,  or  its 
substance  corroded  by  the  process  of  decay.  Decay, 
when  we  speak  of  material  wealth,  is  the  transience 
of  a  condition  of  utility.  The  elements  of  the  decayed 
thing  remain  after  its  decay,  but  no  longer  in  a  shape 
to  fulfil  the  purpose  which  gave  them  value;  and 
money,  mere  money,  is  in  itself  already  a  dead  and 
useless  thing.  Its  life  is  in  exchange.  Except  as  a 
means  of  exchanging  the  good  we  can  do,  which  it 
repays,  for  the  good  we  can  gain,  with  which  it  repays 
it — it  is  useless.  We  desire  money  for  the  sake  of 
what  it  will  bring  to  us.  It  is  a  convenient  and 
portable  shape  in  which  to  transfer  from  hand  to 
hand  the  fruit  of  labour,  the  right  to  demand  the 
necessaries  and  the  pleasures  of  life.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  in  that  vast  system  of  exchange  of  which  we 
spoke  just  now,  actual  coined  money  fills  a  very  small 
place  compared  with  paper  symbols,  which  are  more 
obviously  mere  tokens  of  what  money  will  buy. 

And  the  miser,  the  only  man  who  acts  as  though 
mere  money  were  wealth,  who  delights  in  the  mere 
possession  of  money,  whether  it  be  coined  metal  or 


WEALTH.  153 

any  other  symbol  of  wealth — the  miser,  who  takes 
the  symbol  for  the  reality,  is  regarded  as  a  fool. 
And  yet  it  is  worth  while  pausing  at  this  first 
example  of  the  breach  of  the  Divine  law,  "Lay 
not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon  earth,  where 
moth  and  rust  doth  corrupt."  He  is  a  fool ;  he 
gloats  over  his  money,  and  never  gets  his  money's 
worth.  Its  mere  possession  is  his  pleasure — the 
knowledge  that  he  has  it.  It  is  a  means  to  an  end 
— to  a  thousand  ends ;  and  he  treats  it  as  though  it 
were  an  end  in  itself,  and  gloats  over  it,  and  never 
uses  it.  There  it  lies  before  him,  the  possibility  of 
every  kind  of  use  and  enjoyment ;  but  he  does  not 
use  it ;  he  likes  to  possess  it.  The  money,  the  source 
of  his  pleasure,  will  last  his  time,  as  a  material 
substance  that  keeps  its  shape.  Decay  cannot  rob  him 
of  it.  No  ;  but  decay  has  passed  from  it  to  him,  and 
the  corruption  of  his  own  mind  and  heart  has  already 
coloured,  with  a  more  deadly  corruption  than  any 
mere  physical  decay,  the  utmost  possibilities  of  wealth 
that  reside  in  what  he  treasures.  It  is  well  to  pause 
before  him  as  an  example;  for  we  see  him  to  be  a 
fool,  and  he  is  no  bad  picture  of  those  of  whom  we 
shall  speak  as  we  go  on,  who  repeat  and  exaggerate 
his  folly  and  his  sin.  The  man  who  gloats  over  his 
money  and  does  not  use  it,  is  a  fool.     But  there  are 


154  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

more  fatal  fools  than  he.  The  man  who  gloats  over  the 
things  that  money  buys — over  food,  and  fine  clothes, 
and  ease,  and  leisure — and  does  not  use  them;  the  man 
who  gloats  over  life,  the  life  which  these  things  feed 
and  cherish,  and  does  not  use  it ;  the  man  who  mis- 
uses life  and  the  means  of  life  alike,  and  penetrates 
them  with  the  corrupting  influence  of  a  selfish,  love- 
less soul, — of  all  these  the  miser  is  a  type. 

2.  But  let  us  look  at  their  answer  to  the  question, 
What  is  wealth  ?     It  is  the  answer  we  should 

2.  Abun- 
dance of  the  j^Qg^  Qf  ^s  orive.     Wealth  is  the  abundance 

means  oi  o 

liable  to  ^^^  of  the  means  of  life  and  enjoyment.     It  is 

decay,  as  i  i       • 

"the gradual  for  thc  sakc  of  thcsc  that  we  desire  money  ; 

substitution 

forVhTgher   ^^  ^s  thcsc  that  wc  wish  to   provide.      We 

form  of  life."  ,  ■        f»  c 

prize  money,  most  oi  us,  as  a  means  oi 
exchange.  Houses,  and  clothes,  and  food,  and  furni- 
ture, and  pleasures  ;  pictures,  perhaps,  and  books,  and 
the  power  to  travel, — these,  and  such  as  these,  with 
money  in  the  background  to  provide  more  of  them, 
are  the  things  that  make  up  the  wealth  we  desire. 
The  power  to  marry,  the  power  to  educate  our  children, 
and  start  them  in  the  world,  and  put  them  in  the 
way  of  attaining  the  same  standard  of  ease  and  enjoy- 
ment as  ourselves — these  are  the  treasures  we  lay 
up.  Are  these  treasures  upon  earth ;  are  these  such 
as  moth  and  rust  will  corrupt  ?     Such  of  them  as  are 


WEALTH.  15s 

material,  we  may  think,  will  last  our  time,  like  the 
miser's  gold.  But  even  these  are  relative  to  the  power 
of  enjoyment.  Taste,  and  hearing,  and  sight,  and  less 
material  powers  of  enjoyment  than  these,  decay  as 
life  goes  on,  decay  as  life  decays.  And  some  part  of 
our  idea  of  wealth  is  already  more  than  material ;  it 
is  personal.  It  is  of  the  kind  of  which  we  speak  in 
the  Litany,  when  we  say,  "  In  all  time  of  our  wealth, 
good  Lord  deliver  us."  Wealth — the  wealth  we  desire 
— includes  a  state  of  mind  and  body  and  soul;  it 
includes  all  sorts  of  faculties  and  endowments,  the 
gifts  of  nature,  or  the  result  of  education  and  experi- 
ence. As  surely  as  money  is  of  value  only  for  the 
sake  of  the  means  of  life  and  enjoyment  which  it  will 
provide,  so  surely  are  these  means  of  life  and  enjoy- 
ment themselves  only  of  value  for  the  sake  of  the  life 
to  which  they  minister.  Life  :  wealth  is  a  life — fed, 
it  is  true,  by  material  things,  supported  and  sur- 
rounded by  food  and  furniture  of  all  the  kinds  of 
which  we  spoke — food  and  furniture,  animate  and  in- 
animate; food  and  furniture  for  the  body  and  the  mind; 
but  the  life  itself  resides  in  a  person,  to  whose  pleasure 
all  these  things  minister  only  if  he  has  powers  to 
enjoy  them.  Who  has  not  had  cause  to  regret  in 
later  life,  when  some  means  of  enjoyment  lay  before 
him,  that  a  defective  education  had  made  them  use- 


156  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

less  for  want  of  the  power  to  enjoy  ?  Who  does  not 
know  that  one  of  the  most  difficult  parts  of  the 
problem  of  relieving  the  poverty  of  the  poor,  is  how 
to  give  them  the  power  to  rise  to  the  enjoyment  of 
better  things  ?  Who  does  not  see  of  himself,  that 
most  of  the  enjoyments  he  treasures  are  due  to  his 
possession  of  certain  faculties,  which  form  part  of  the 
original  endowment  of  nature,  or  which  early  training 
and  education  have  developed  ? 

Well,  then,  it  is  in  the  satisfaction  and  employment 
of  these  faculties  and  powers  of  enjoyment  that 
wealth  consists.  And  it  is  of  these — the  faculties 
and  powers  of  enjoyment  to  which  material  wealth 
ministers — that  we  must  ask,  are  they  corruptible  ? 
Are  they  not  ?  Moth  and  rust  will  not  corrupt  the 
comfortable  income  which  provides  for  the  satisfaction 
of  our  needs,  though  that,  too,  is  liable  to  accident 
and  loss.  But,  as  with  the  miser  gloating  over  his 
gold,  the  golden  coin  will  not  decay  so  soon  as 
the  fingers  in  whose  clutch  it  lies,  so  with  us  and 
our  wealth — we  need  not  wait  till  the  body  is  laid 
cold  and  stiff,  and  the  soul  has  fled  away,  to  see  that 
our  powers  of  enjoyment  are  corruptible.  Where 
are  the  opportunities  of  youth,  the  glory  of  its 
promise,  the  power  of  its  hope  ?  Where  is  the  life 
that  we  felt  within  us  then — all  that  we  had  it  in  us 


WEALTH.  157 

to  do  ?  Where  are  those  splendid  possibilities  which 
were  a  part  of  ourselves  then  ?  They  are  gone — far, 
far  down  the  wind.  It  is  not  only  that  opportunities 
were  wasted,  and  that  the  faculties  we  did  not  feed 
faded  away ;  it  is  not  even  that,  as  life  went  on,  we 
were  bound  to  narrow  down  the  scope  of  our  ambition 
and  our  activity.  It  is  that  life  dies  in  the  using,  its 
vigour  fades,  its  range  contracts  ;  day  by  day  it  is  less 
vivid  and  intense.  At  best,  with  the  faculties  we  use 
and  develop  there  is  a  process  of  decay,  steady,  slow, 
progressive,  aiming  at  the  grave,  tUat  gradual  substi- 
tution of  a  lower  for  a  higher  form  of  life,  which, 
when  we  speak  of  living  things,  is  the  nature  of 
decay.  "Lay  not  up  for  yourselves  treasures  upon 
earth,"  for  earthly  powers  of  enjoyment,  of  work,  of 
thought,  of  feeling,  of  life  itself,  are  all  subject  to  decay. 
3.  We  rebel  against  this  doom  of  death.  There  is 
something^  in  us,  there  is   something   even 

.  .  3.  Love. 

in  our  aim  at  w^ealth,  that  can  meet  it  with  THsaioneis 

'  not  subject  to 

defiance.     A   man   provides  for    those   that  excep^\'S"' 

"the  dis- 

live  with  him,  for  those  he  loves,  for  those  appearance 

of  the  oppor- 

that   come   after   him,  for  his  wife,  for  his  [ove"^un- 
child.     They,  too,  may  die  ;  but  there  is  one 
thing  that  does  not  die,  that  is  careless  of  death,  that 
lives  through  death,  and  in  spite  of  it,  and  that  is  his 
love. 


158  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

It  is  true.  At  last  we  have  reached  "  treasure  in 
heaven,"  what  neither  moth,  nor  rust,  nor  any  other 
power  of  death  can  corrupt,  if  it  be  true  to  itself  As 
money  is  good  for  the  means  of  life  which  we  get  by 
it,  and  the  means  of  life  are  good  for  the  life  which 
they  support,  so  life  itself  is  good  for  the  love  that 
lives  in  it,  and  that  is  not  subject  to  corruption  or 
decay.  Life  is  a  means  to  love;  and  wealth — the 
true  wealth,  the  only  true  well-being  of  the  soul  and 
body  of  man — is  love.  And  all  other  wealth — money, 
and  houses,  and  lands,  and  pleasures,  and  enjoyments, 
and  faculties  of  body  and  sense  and  intellect — all  are 
wealth,  true  wealth,  "  treasure  in  heaven,"  if  they  are 
absorbed  in  love,  dedicated  to  love,  and  used  by  love. 

It  is  not  a  far-away  and  unpractical  doctrine.  What 
is  the  wealth,  the  well-being  of  a  nation  ?  Is  it  not 
in  the  life  they  live  with  one  another  ?  Is  it  not  in 
a  great  system  of  mutual  help,  putting  in  the  reach 
of  every  man  that  is  born  within  its  bounds  a  life 
in  which,  because  his  labour  shall  contribute  to  the 
good  of  all,  all  the  whole  world  about  him  shall 
in  turn  contribute  to  form,  to  guard,  to  gladden  his 
home  ? 

As  it  is,  look  at  your  life,  the  food  you  eat,  the 
clothes  you  wear,  the  house  you  live  in,  the  work  you 
do,  the  pleasures  you  enjoy :  all  of  these  come  to  you 


WEALTH.  159 

by  the  help  of  others,  in  return  for  what  you  do  for 
them,  or  what  you  or  others  have  done  for  them. 
And  the  wealth  of  a  nation  is  that  this  interchange 
should  be  willing,  ready,  just,  complete,  between  the 
members  of  a  nation,  and  between  them  and  all  the 
world  ;  and  that  in  this  vast  system  of  a  mutual  help 
all  should  find  their  happiness  and  their  place ;  and 
that  in  it,  as  in  a  body,  should  live  and  work  the  soul 
that  really  belongs  to  it,  the  spirit  of  mutual  good- 
will. Wealth  is  the  actual  realized  existence  of  this 
interchange  of  good. 

It  is  not  a  far-away  and  unpractical  doctrine.  It 
is  plain,  everyday  matter  of  fact.  Your  wealth, 
whatever  it  may  be,  little  or  great — the  wealth  you 
make,  the  wealth  you  spend — is  treasure,  corruptible  or 
incorruptible,  treasure  on  earth  or  treasure  in  heaven, 
according  as  it  is  or  is  not,  in  the  making  and  the 
spending,  the  instrument  of  love.  The  transaction 
across  the  counter  by  which  you  gain  your  money, 
is  every  bit  as  much  the  concern  of  love  as  the 
bestowal  of  it  on  your  wife  or  your  child.  You  can't 
borrow  money  in  hell  to  spend  in  heaven.  Would 
you  feed  your  child  on  crime  ?  The  sternest  law  of 
love  applies  to  the  making  of  money.  God  has  set 
you  in  the  world  with  other  men  to  learn,  by  mutual 
interchange  of  the  means  of  life,  the  laws  of  love ;  to 


i6o  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

multiply  by  love,  to  multiply,  as  we  do  multiply,  by 
working  for  one  another,  the  means  of  life ;  and  every 
transaction  between  you  and  your  neighbour  should 
be  for  the  good  of  both,  otherwise  you  are  multiplying 
corruption,  you  are  linking  yourself  to  the  kingdoms 
of  corruption,  and  it  will  avail  you  little  that  the 
pure  flower  of  loving  lives  draws  life  in  part  and 
unknowing  from  the  corruption  that  you  breed. 

In  the  making  and  in  the  spending,  wealth  is  the 
instrument  of  love.  We  are  all  familiar  nowadays 
with  the  picture  of  the  poor  working  man,  who, 
when  he  has  received  his  wages,  is  tempted  half-way 
home  to  the  public-house,  and  drinks  while  his  wife 
and  children  starve.  A  terrible  picture,  and  a  true 
one  in  many  cases,  as  we  see  and  know ;  a  terrible 
picture,  and  a  true  one  of  you,  if  you  spend  on  selfish 
pleasures  what  might  at  least  be  spent  on  pleasures 
social,  and  shared  with  those  you  love.  Are  there 
no  thin,  pale  souls  about  you,  whose  very  faculties 
of  enjoyment  are  starved,  in  reach  of  your  help,  while 
yours  are  glutted,  sated,  dulled  ?  How  many  of  us 
neglect  and  ignore  the  vast  gifts  of  love  we  might 
bestow,  by  caring  for  the  better  education  of  those 
who  depend  upon  us,  or  might  depend  upon  us, 
multiplying  not  only  their  powers  of  enjoyment,  but 
all  the  faculties  and  energies  of  useful  and  loving  life ! 


WEALTH,  i6i 

And  your  wealth,  meanwhile,  goes,  evaporates  in 
little  trifling  self-indulgences,  scarcely  substantial 
enough  to  seem  subject  to  decay;  but  the  heart 
decays,  and  the  conscience — the  power  to  feel  your 
degradation,  the  power  to  sympathize,  the  power  to 
love. 

Decay — it  is  its  last  and  most  terrible  feature — 
decay,  when  we  speak  of  spiritual  beings,  is  the  dis- 
appearance of  the  opportunities  of  love.  They  pass 
away  as  a  dying  man  feels  his  senses  fail  him  as  he 
dies,  and  the  faces  of  his  friends  fade,  and  the  power  to 
lift  a  hand  to  touch  them  is  gone,  and  the  light  grows 
dull  in  the  eye,  and  he  is  cut  oflf — alone.  The  oppor- 
tunities of  love  pass  away.  Does  love  itself  remain  ? 
Has  it  used  them  and  grown  strong,  or  has  the  soul 
lived  a  selfish  life,  laying  up  for  itself  "  treasures  upon 
earth,  where  moth  and  rust  doth  corrupt "  ? 

Is  it  corruptible  wealth,  or  incorruptible,  that  you 
desire — wealth  to  feed  love,  or  wealth  to  feed  selfish 
pride  and  display,  selfish  ease  and  indulgence  ?  It  is 
right  to  desire  wealth,  it  is  wrong  to  be  content  with- 
out it — true  wealth,  openly,  fairly,  and  justly  gained 
by  true  work ;  true  wealth  to  be  spent  on  the  purposes 
of  love.  The  man  who  goes  on  piling  up  wealth  upon 
wealth,  more  than  he  can  manage  and  use  for  the  good 
of  society,  who  desires,  senselessly,  what  will  not  help 


1 62  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

life  or  increase  enjoyment,  what  he  will  never  use 
for  his  own  good  or  the  good  of  others,  in  constant, 
aimless  discontent,  is  both  selfish  and  a  fool ;  but  that 
man  is  no  less  selfish  and  a  fool  who  is  content  with 
small  means  to  low  ends,  whose  ambition  is  not 
widened  by  the  desire  to  help  to  a  higher  and  hap- 
pier life  those  who  depend  upon  him,  who  is  content, 
without  the  aspirations  which  employ  the  energies 
of  love. 

What  will  you  be  the  better  for  the  wealth  that 
has  been  given  to  ijou  when  you  pass  away  from  these 
material  things,  when  you  pass  away  from  the 
occasions  and  opportunities  of  love  ?  What  will  you 
leave  behind  to  those  for  whom  it  is  your  duty  or 
your  privilege  to  provide  ?  The  means  of  life,  if  you 
may;  but,  with  them  or  without  them,  if  you  have  not 
these  to  leave,  the  memories  and  the  legacy  of  love. 
There  was  One  that  left  to  the  world,  and  to  every 
soul  in  it,  the  greatest  treasure  that  the  world  has 
ever  known.  Who,  while  He  lived,  had  not  where  to 
lay  His  Head.  There  is  One  that  looks  down  on  you, 
for  Whom  your  soul,  be  it  old  or  young,  fresh  or  worn 
with  life,  innocent  or  old  in  selfish,  worldly  sin,  has  a 
value  far,  far  above  all  earthly  treasures.  Give  to  Him 
your  wealth,  be  it  little  or  great,  your  labour,  your  life, 
your  powers,  your  soul,  yourself.     Give  them  to  Him, 


WEALTH.  163 

that  is,  let  Him  possess  them  and  fill  them  with  the 
spirit  of  His  love,  that  you  may  shine  through  and 
through  all  your  life  with  the  light  of  His  presence 
and  His  possession,  and  transmit  the  radiance  of  His 
love,  and  be  His  in  the  day  when  He  makes  up  His 
jewels. 


IX. 
THE   ECONOMIC   BODY. 

"  From  "Whom  the  whole  body  fitly  joined  together  and  compacted  by 
that  which  every  joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual  working 
in  the  measure  of  every  part,  maketli  increase  of  the  body  unto  the 
edifying  of  itself  in  love." — Eph.  iv.  16. 

A  Christian  life  is  a  new  life — new  in  contrast  to  the 
That  Chris-   human  life  that  is  not  Christian:  new,  again, 

tian  life  is  >  >      is  > 

iife?b  the  ^^  every  step  by  Avhich  we  put  on  Christ. 
s.^Pauif^  °  What,  then,  is  the  character  of  this  new  life  ? 
what  is  its  impress,  its  mark  upon  the  soul,  upon  the 
relations  of  men  ?  S.  Paul  gives  many  answers.  That 
which  he  gives  most  often  may  be  expressed  by  saying 
that  the  Christian  life,  the  new  life,  is — to  sum  up  in 
one  word  his  view  of  human  duty  and  the  grace  of 
God — a  corporate  life.  He  recurs  over  and  over  again 
to  the  metaphor  of  the  body. 

A  recently  popular  book  has  illustrated,  from  the 
conquests  of  modern  science,  the  lessons  which  may  be 
drawn  from  a  study  of  organic  life.     But  the  plain 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  165 

spiritual  and  moral  meaning  of  the  metaphor  of  the 
body,  may,  perhaps,  be  still  best  found  in  a  study  of 
the  writings  of  S.  Paul.  The  metaphor  of  the  body, 
the  description  of  the  spiritual  life  by  its  comparison 
to  organic  life,  may  be  followed  through  all  the  more 
important  of  the  Epistles.  In  the  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians  it  comes,  first,  in  connection  with  the  Sacra- 
ments, the  means  of  Christian  life — "  We  being  many 
are  one  bread,  and  one  body :  for  we  are  all  partakers 
of  that  one  Bread  ; "  and,  again,  "  For  as  the  body  is 
one,  and  hath  many  members,  and  all  the  members  of 
that  one  body,  being  many,  are  one  body :  so  also  is 
Christ.  For  by  one  Spirit  are  we  all  baptized  into 
one  Body."  By  the  gift  of  the  Spirit,  and  by  the  in- 
dwelling of  Christ,  we  are  drawn  closer  to  one  another, 
and  to  all  who,  through  whatever  means,  live  by  any 
measure  of  the  grace  of  Christ,  in  a  common  or  cor- 
porate life.  And  then,  from  the  diversity  of  operation 
of  the  different  members  of  the  same  body,  is  drawn 
the  lesson  of  the  mutual  interdependence  between 
the  members  of  the  Christian  Body,  and  of  the  duty 
of  mutual  consideration,  care,  and  sympathy.  Again, 
in  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  the  same  doctrine 
of  our  membership  one  of  another  in  the  Body  of 
Christ  is  made  the  root-principle  of  all  Christian 
duty,  at  the  beginning  of  that  moral  summary  which 


1 66  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

concludes  the  great  Epistle.  Pass  on  to  the  Epistles 
of  the  first  imprisonment,  and  the  same  metaphor 
appears,  with  another  side  of  its  meaning  expanded 
and  put  forth.  Christ  is  "  the  Head  of  all  things  to 
the  Church,  which  is  His  Body,  the  fulness  of  Him 
that  filleth  all  in  all."  It  is  as  members  of  His  Body 
that  we  receive  His  grace.  He  "  reconciles  "  Jew  and 
Gentile  "unto  God  in  one  Body  by  the  Cross."  "  There 
is  one  Body,  and  one  Spirit,  even  as  we  are  called  in 
one  hope  of  our  calling ;  one  Lord,  one  Faith,  one 
Baptism,  one  God  and  Father  of  all,  Who  is  above  all, 
and  through  all,  and  in  us  all ;  "  and  "  to  every  one  is 
given  grace  according  to  the  measure  of  the  gift  of 
Christ."  And  the  purpose  of  the  gifts  of  grace — and 
here  comes  in  another  lesson  frcJm  the  metaphor — is 
mutual  help — that  "  speaking  the  truth  in  love,"  we 
"  may  grow  up  into  Him  in  all  things,  which  is  the 
Head,  even  Christ :  from  Whom  the  whole  Body  fitly 
joined  together  and  compacted  by  that  which  every 
joint  supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual  working  in 
the  measure  of  every  part,  maketh  increase  of  the 
Body  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love."  And  the 
Epistle  to  the  Colossians  here,  as  elsewhere,  treats 
of  the  same  subject,  only  in  the  different  tone  which 
belongs  to  the  special  aim  of  the  Epistle. 

Here,  then,  under  the   metaphor  of   the  different 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  167 

relations  of  the  members  of  a  body  to  one  another, 
and  to  the  head,  is  a  description  of  the  general 
character  of  the  Christian  life,  of  the  new  life — that 
we  are  members  of  a  Body.  And  this  general  cha- 
racter may  be  summed  up  in  three  laws — 

1.  That  each  member  of  the  Body  is  a  part,  depen- 
dent on  the  rest. 

2.  That  each  receives  life  from  the  Head. 

3.  That  each  lives  for  the  good  of  the  whole  Body, 
to  help  others. 

This  is  the  general  character,  these  are  the  laws 
laid  down  as  belonging  to  the  highest  society,  The  chris- 
the   Christian   Church,  whose   object   is   to  corporate 

''  life  apply, 

renew  the  image  of  God  in  man.     They  have  "h^  socfai° 
their   bearing   on  the  relationship  between  church,  but 

to  all  social 

the  members  of  a  Church,  between  those  relations. 
who  hold  "the  Faith  once  delivered  to  the  Saints," 
in  any  particular  nation,  or  country,  or  place.  But 
we  shall  not  see  what  their  full  meaning  is,  unless 
we  follow  them  out  into  other  relationships  as  well. 
As  the  laws  of  that  society  which  is  to  renew  the 
image  of  God  in  man,  they  are  the  laws  by  which 
man,  as  man,  ought  to  live,  the  laws  of  human  life  in 
all  departments.  They  define  the  spirit  in  which  a 
man  is  to  live,  the  general  character  of  human  duty ; 
but    this   spirit   has   to    work    in    the   body   of    the 


i68  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

actual,  everyday  relations  between  man  and  man — the 
general  character  has  to  take  special  shape  in  appli- 
cation to  the  special  duties  of  every  part  of  the  life 
of  man  in  every  age.  There  are  not  one  set  of  laws 
for  the  life  of  man  as  a  member  of  the  society  of  the 
Christian  Church,  and  quite  another  set  for  his  life 
as  a  member,  say,  of  the  family,  or  the  State,  or  of 
society  in  any  other  aspect.  Rather,  these  different 
spheres  of  social  life  make  up  a  part  of  that  whole 
mass  of  human  conduct  which  has  to  be  inspired  and 
ruled  by  these  principles.  In  all  alike  the  same  laws 
obtain,  the  same  image  of  God  has  to  be  shown  forth. 
In  the  life  of  the  Church  itself  is  their  first  and 
clearest  application,  just  because  the  object  of  the 
Church  is  their  universal  application.  And  if  they 
obtain  in  a  different  way  between  men  who  recognize 
a  common  source  for  the  common  Spirit  which  rules 
and  sanctifies  their  lives,  and  receive  God's  grace  by 
His  appointed  means,  they  obtain  also  in  regulating 
our  everyday  relations  to  those  who  live,  as  we  do, 
in  the  reception  of  that  degree  of  grace  which,  by 
whatever  means,  God  gives  to  them,  even  though 
they  do  not  recognize,  as  we  do,  the  source  from 
which  it  comes,  or  use  the  means  through  which  it 
is  ordained  to  flow. 

So,  then,  we  should  not  be  prevented  from  working 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  169 

out  the  application  of  these  principles  to  the  various 
spheres  of  everyday  life,  either  because  we  may 
seem  to  be  applying  them  to  worldly  matters,  or 
because  we  are  applying  them  to  our  dealings,  not 
only  with  one  another,  but  with  worldly  men.  It  is 
our  duty  to  spiritualize  the  whole  of  our  life ;  it  is  our 
duty  to  behave  as  Christians  to  all  men;  as  far  as 
ever  they  will  allow  us,  to  apply  to  our  relations  to 
them  the  rules  which  are  set  to  regulate  the  conduct 
of  the  members  of  Christ  one  to  another. 

I  propose  here  to  suggest  the  application  of  these 
principles   to   one  special  part  of  our   life. 
God   has   made   us    men    members   one    of  economic 
another  in  a  thousand  wavs — in  this  amone:    "  ^^^'  ^'^ ' 
others,  that  we  live,  and  support  our  daily  material 
life,  and  provide  ourselves  and  one  another  with  the 
necessaries  and  pleasures  of  life  as  members  of  one 
body.     If  I  am  to  use   the  ordinary  technical  term, 
I  propose  to  ask,  what  bearing  on  our  economic  duties 
have  the  principles  of  Christ  as  defined  by  S.  Paul  ? 
I  need  not  insist  specially  in  this  relation  that  our 
Christian  duty  as  to  the  material  side  of  our  life  is  to 
spiritualize  it,  to  transfuse  it  with  spiritual  principles ; 
this  will  appear  sufficiently  by  the  way. 

1.  Take  first,  then,  the  law  of  mutual  dependence 
one  on  another  of  the  members  of  a  body.     "  The  eye 


I70  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

cannot  say  unto  the  hand,  I  have  no  need  of  thee  : 
(i)  the  law     nor  again  the   head  to  the  feet,  I  have  no 

of  mutual 

dependence    necd  of  vou."    In  the  orie^lnal  passaoje  S.  Paul 

between  man  ^  o  x  o 

and  man ;  'g  dealing  wlth  Independence  in  the  form  of 
conceit,  an  exaggerated  view  of  the  value  and  import- 
ance of  our  own  endowments,  especially  of  our  own 
wisdom  and  knowledge.  But  there  are  other  forms 
of  independence  besides  conceit. 

Now,  independence  in  the  matters  I  am  speaking 
of  is  commonly  reckoned  a  virtue.  And  this  view 
represents  one  side  of  the  truth.  It  is  good  for  a  man 
to  make  his  own  living.  "  If  any  will  not  work, 
neither  should  he  eat."  It  is  good  to  feel  that  we  live 
on  what  we  earn,  that  our  support  and  our  pleasures 
are  the  fair  due  of  our  services.  It  is  good  and  right 
even  to  rest  thankfully  and  securely  in  the  possession 
of  what  is  lawfully  and  rightly  our  own,  whether  we 
have  earned  it,  or  whether  it  has  been  earned  by 
others,  and  given  or  bequeathed  to  us.  It  is  a  fair 
and  good  ground  of  confidence  to  feel  that  there  is 
nothing  we  use  or  enjoy  of  which  we  cannot  say, 
*'  I  bought  it,  and  have  paid  for  it,  or  can  pay  for  it. 
It  is  as  truly  mine  as  if  I  had  made  it."  For  the 
moment,  let  us  put  all  this  aside  without  further 
consideration,  and  look  only  at  the  other  side  of  the 
truth.     This  is  true  independence ;  but  there  is  a  true 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  171 

dependence  which  goes  along  with  it,  and  the  denial 
of  which  is  a  false  independence. 

Our  means  of  life  fairly  earned  and  received  are  our 
own.  Well,  if  they  are  received  by  gift  or  bequest, 
it  is  not  hard  to  see  that  we  are  also  dependent. 
Our  whole  material  life,  then,  is  a  gift,  truly  ours ; 
but  a  gift  the  creation,  the  workmanship  of  some  one 
else.  It  is  some  one  else's  doing,  not  ours.  There  is 
the  fact  to  be  remembered — we  are  dependent  on 
others,  though  it  may  be  on  those  who  have  passed 
away  out  of  our  sight.  And  if  our  means  of  life 
are  earned,  what  then  ?  Why,  then,  surely  S.  Paul's 
words  come  in,  "  The  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand, 
I  have  no  need  of  thee."  We  earn  as  parts  of  a 
system  dependent  on  others  and  on  the  whole.  Eye 
and  hand,  indeed,  have  their  parallel  in  the  direction 
and  the  work  of  almost  any  industry,  mental  or 
bodily;  and  far  more  complex  than  the  interdepen- 
dence of  the  parts  of  the  physical  body  are  the  mutual 
give  and  take  between  the  infinitely  various  members 
of  that  spiritual  organism — for  spiritual  it  is — by 
which  we  enable  each  other  to  provide  for  one 
another's  needs  and  for  our  own. 

True,  this  system  may  be  presented  rather  as  a 
combination  for  self  help,  in  which  each  member  is 
pursuing  his  own  ends.     Let  it  be  so.     I  am  not  at 


172  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

present  concerned  with  our  ends.  Let  us  get  the 
bare  fact  that,  in  earning  what  we  call  our  own,  we 
do  depend,  and  depend  very  largely,  on  others.  It 
is  needless  to  trace  the  same  truth  through  the  process 
by  which  we  use  our  means,  and  buy  and  pay  for 
what  we  want.  It  is  ours;  we  pay  for  it.  By  all 
means ;  but  for  what  is  ours  we  do  depend  on  others. 
They  have  their  own  motive  for  providing  it,  no 
doubt ;  but  there  it  is  provided,  and  we  depend  on  its 
being  provided  for  our  sustenance  and  comfort.  As 
matter  may  be  analyzed  into  an  assemblage  of  forces, 
so  the  sustenance  and  comfort  of  our  lives  is  made  up 
by  and  in  its  very  substance  consists  of  the  work,  the 
energy,  the  life  of  other  men. 

And  this  is  not  all.  We  do  depend  for  mere 
material  things,  not  only  on  the  actual  work  and 
contribution  of  others,  but  on  moral  and  spiritual 
qualities  in  them,  to  which  self-interest  is  at  best  but 
a  contributory  motive,  and  which  often  lie  altogether 
beyond  the  range  of  its  effects.  It  is  difficult  for 
any  one  who  has  thought  of  it  to  speak  coldly  of  the 
vast  spiritual  machinery  of  our  economic  life.  Look 
only  at  a  single  force  in  it.  Look  at  the  working  of 
trust.  See  how  far  we  live  on  trust,  by  observing 
with  what  horror  we  discover  its  violation,  and  the 
social   outlawry   which  visits  the  crime.     How  vast 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  1 73 

an  amount  of  the  business  of  the  world,  by  which 
our  needs  are  supplied,  rests  upon  the  assumption  that 
any  given  man  is  what  he  professes  to  be,  and  will 
do  what  he  professes  to  do  !  We  depend  upon  trust- 
worthiness ;  we  live  on  it. 

Or,  again,  to  take  an  instance  in  every  one's  personal 
experience,  how  much  we  depend  on  kindness !  In 
the  largest  single  industry  in  the  country,  that  of 
domestic  service,  we  all  know  that  our  needs  are 
not  met  without  a  fellow-feeling  and  a  sympathy 
which  wages  cannot  buy.  A  good  servant  means 
a  sympathetic  servant.  We  depend  upon  kindness  ; 
we  live  on  it ;  it  is  our  very  breath. 

Here,  then,  to  start  with,  is  a  fact.  For  your  life, 
for  your  living,  however  wholly  you  support  yourself, 
no  less  wholly  you  depend  on  others.  We  are  apt 
to  dwell  on  the  value  of  independence  until  we  forget 
this,  until  we  feel  as  if  we  stood  alone  in  a  comfort 
and  ease  of  our  own  making.  I  do  not  ask  yet 
what  consequences  we  draw  as  to  our  liberty  to 
use  our  means  as  we  will.  It  is  not  the  fact;  we 
do  not  stand  alone ;  we  are  dependent  upon  others, 
dependent  for  everything,  for  what  is  most  our 
own,  and  very  peevishly  we  take  it  if  they  fail  us 
in  that  for  which  we  have  been  used  to  depend  on 

>^  OP  THB^^ 

'■g'BflVBRSITr] 


174  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

This   is   one    side   of   the   truth,    then,   about  the 
support  of  our  lives.     We  depend  upon  others. 

2.  Now  let  us  go  back  upon  the  other  side  of  our 
position,  that  we  depend  upon  ourselves,  and 

(2)  the  law        "-  ■'••'■ 

denci'on"  ^^^  ^^^  Hves  are  our  own,  and  let  us  look 
at  this  in  the  full  light  of  S.  Paul's  second 
principle  of  social  life.  What  hast  thou  which  thou 
hast  not  received  ?  What,  indeed  ?  Is  there  anything 
which  can  be  said  of  spiritual  endowments,  of  "the 
grace  given  to  every  man,  according  to  the  measure  of 
the  gift  of  Christ," — as  that  there  is  no  good  thing  in 
us,  no  power,  or  qualitj^,  or  faculty,  or  condition  which 
is  not  the  grace  or  gift  of  God — is  there  anything  like 
this  which  cannot  be  said  also,  and  with  equal  truth, 
of  material  gifts,  and  the  faculties  that  concern  them  ? 
Restrict  your  vision  for  a  moment  to  what  your 
earthly  eyes  can  see — to  these  material  things  of 
beauty  and  pleasure  and  comfort  with  which  your 
life  is  surrounded,  and  measure  even  by  them,  as  they 
pour  upon  the  bodily  senses  of  the  man  who  receives 
them,  the  "proclive  weight  and  rush"  of  that  full 
stream  of  the  Everlasting  Love  of  God,  which  casts  up 
these  as  mere  light  foam  to  brighten  its  surface,  and 
to  betray,  even  while  they  veil  from  view,  the  awful 
depth  and  strength  of  the  Eternal  tide  ! 

In  a  general  way  we  acknowledge,  of  course,  that 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  175 

all  is  the  gift  of  God.  But  with  what  reality  ?  That 
home  in  which  you  live,  its  space,  its  warmth,  its 
light,  its  comfort,  these  are  the  gift  of  God,  and  so  is 
the  power  to  enjoy  them.  Books  and  pictures,  and 
the  pleasures  of  hospitality,  and  of  talk  with  your 
friends,  these  are  the  gift  of  God,  and  so  are  the 
higher  powers  which  they  employ.  That  investment 
from  which  you  draw  a  part  of  your  income,  this 
business  which  you  conduct,  this  office  where  you 
direct  men's  minds  and  hands,  the  power  and  scope 
they  give  to  the  energy  of  mind  and  will,  in  whose 
exercise  you  revel  even  more  than  you  do  in  their 
results,  these  are  the  gift  of  God.  Sometimes,  perhaps, 
we  dare  not  remember  that  they  are  so,  for  the  use 
that  we  make  of  them.  How  much  more  the  home, 
the  power  to  marry,  the  memories  of  happy  years 
sown  with  self-sacrifice  and  self-denial,  fruitful  in  the 
joys  of  love  ;  bright  children's  faces,  and  sons  and 
daughters  grown  up  in  strength  and  beauty  to  be  the 
joy  of  age  !  If  these  things  stand  for  the  use  by  which, 
most  of  all,  you  have  made  what  you  have  earned 
your  own,  surely  these  are  indeed  the  gift  of  God. 

Yes ;  and  in  all  these  we  are  within  the  range  and 
scope  of  that  Eternal  purpose  of  predestinating  love, 
by  which  He  purposed  to  reconcile  you  to  Himself, 
through  Him,  Who  is  not  only  "the  Head  of  the  Body, 


176  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

the  Church,"  but  "  the  image  of  the  Invisible  God,  the 
Firstborn  of  every  creature,"  Who  is  "  before  all  things, 
and  by  Him  all  things  consist;"  "the  true  Light,  Which 
lighteneth  every  man  ;  Who  was  in  the  world,  and  the 
world  was  made  by  Him,  and  the  world  knew  Him 
not."  Know  Him.  You  know  Him  in  grace,  in  that  He 
has  given  you  *'  power  to  be  the  sons  of  God."  Know 
Him  here,  too,  in  this  natural  order  of  His  working,  now 
illumined  and  transfigured  by  the  light  and  life  of  grace. 
Know  Him,  it  is  He  in  "  Whom  all  fulness  dwells,"  of 
Whom  you  have  received  all  things  that  are  good. 

What  hast  thou  that  thou  hast  not  received  ?  Nay, 
what  art  thou  that  thou  hast  not  received  ?  Pass 
from  the  outward  gifts  to  the  body,  soul,  and  spirit 
of  yourself  You,  the  clay  moulded  and  inbreathed 
by  His  love,  what  are  you  but  a  vessel,  a  power  to 
receive  His  gifts — and  thai  a  gift;  a  vessel  filled 
with  all  that  He  can  pour  upon  you,  by  His  love 
made  visible  in  the  human  hands  of  those  on  whom 
your  life  depends  ?  What  are  you  ?  Nothing  more  ? 
Yes ;  there  is  one  gift  more — the  power  to  give  back 
that  which  you  have  received. 

3.  From  Him,  in  the  words  of  S.  Paul's  own  state- 
ment  of  the   third   law   of  social   life,  the  (3)  the  law 
law  of  help,  "the  whole  Body,  fitly  joined  help. 
together  and   compacted   by  that  which  every  joint 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  177 

supplieth,  according  to  the  effectual  working  in 
the  measure  of  every  part,  niaketh  increase  of  the 
Body  unto  the  edifying  of  itself  in  love."  Have 
material  interests,  do  you  think,  no  part  in  this 
blessing  ?  Is  not  our  intercourse  in  material  things 
the  very  body  into  which  this  Spirit  has  to  flow  ? 
"Was  it  not  in  dealings  with  material  needs  that 
this  Spirit  was  first  set  forth  visibly  before  our 
eyes,  and  men  "beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  as  of 
the  only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace  and 
truth  "  ?  Should  not  the  Spirit  of  Christ  be  at  home 
in  these  things,  not  as  an  occasional  intruder,  to  effect 
a  compromise  in  disagreement,  to  demand  an  alms  for 
accidental  poverty,  but  as  the  governing  and  per- 
vading principle,  harmonizing  the  efforts  and  the  wills 
of  all  in  our  common  war  with  want  and  pain  ?  What 
are  you  at  all  in  the  economy  of  God's  world,  as 
revealed  in  the  revelation  of  His  Son,  unless  you  live, 
and  live  altogether,  for  the  use  of  others  ?  The  eye 
is  for  seeing,  the  hand  for  shaping,  and  man  for  help- 
ing ;  and  you  for  your  work,  for  your  help  to  the 
body,  for  your  peculiar  service,  and  for  nothing  else. 
For  what  else  do  you  receive  all  that  God  gives  to  you  ? 
"  Indeed,  the  eye  cannot  say  unto  the  hand,  I  have 
no  need  of  thee  ;  "  what  is  it  for  but  to  guide  the  hand  ? 
You  have  need  of  that  on  which  to  bestow  what  you 

N 


178  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

have  received.  This  is  the  general  law  of  the  function 
of  any  part  of  a  body,  that  it  should  help.  Those 
with  whom  you  have  to  do,  whether  through  man's 
sin  their  call  ever  reaches  the  ears  of  their  soul  or  not, 
are  predestined  with  you,  in  the  purpose  of  God,  to 
show  forth  His  love.  As  God  is  known  to  us  as  Love, 
so  we,  who  are  made  and  renewed  in  His  image,  are 
made  to  transmit,  and  in  transmitting  to  reflect  and 
embody  the  love  that  is  poured  upon  ourselves.  This 
is  the  whole  spiritual  substance  and  reality  of  our 
being.  And  the  greatest  gifts  of  love  are  these : 
powers  to  help,  powers  to  do  good,  powers  to  be  like 
God,  in  the  systematic  and  deliberate  working  of 
plans  and  purposes  of  love,  living  ourselves  out  in 
them,  manifesting  in  them  what  we  are.  And  so  the 
body,  the  society,  grows  and  makes  increase,  and 
builds  itself  up  in  the  likeness  of  God — the  Body  of 
Him  Who  is  the  brightness  of  God's  glory,  "and  the 
express  image  of  His  Person,"  and  we  contribute,  each 
in  our  measure,  to  its  growth  and  to  its  glory. 

Each  in  our  own  employment  and  position  in  life 
have  to  view  it  as  the  employment  and  position  of  a 
member  of  the  Body  of  Christ,  living  on  the  life 
of  others,  receiving  love  from  God,  receiving  it  in 
substantial  shape,  that  we  may  show  it  forth  in  lives 
of   love   towards   those    with   whose   lives   God  has 


THE  ECONOMIC  BODY.  179 

entwined  our  own.  In  lives  of  love — love  that  is  no 
passing  feeling  of  a  luxurious  hour  of  religious  medi- 
tation, but  the  controlling  and  informing  power  of  a 
life  of  work  ;  love  that  is  no  meaningless  sentiment, 
but  a  principle,  sober  and  deliberate,  working  by 
rule,  aiming  at  clear  ends  by  methods  that  will 
always  bear  the  light,  with  strenuous,  steadfast  will, 
inspired  day  by  day  by  the  Universal  and  Eternal 
Love  of  God ;  love  that  will  make  sacred  with  its 
presence  and  its  touch  all  that  we  are  and  all  that 
we  enjoy,  and  measure  daily  duties  by  the  Divine 
standard  of  that  Eternal  Love,  Which  builds  up  the 
dust  out  of  which  we  are  made  into  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God. 


X. 
THE   ETHICS   OF    DIVISION   OF    LABOUR. 

It  has  been  noted  as  a  curious  omission  in  Adam 
A  supposed    Smith's  enumeration  of  the  economic  advan- 

omission  in  n        ^  t«*  r»Ti  aIxi 

the  theory     tagcs    01    thc   divisiou   01    laoour,  that   he 

of  division 

ofiabour.  (jQgg  jjQ^  include  the  advantage  which  arises 
from  each  man  doing  the  work  which  suits  him 
best.  It  would  have  been  very  remarkable  if  the 
master,  who  surpasses  most  of  his  disciples  in  the 
human  interest  he  finds  in  his  subject,  should  have 
omitted  to  notice  the  most  distinctively  human 
element  in  the  economic  system  he  describes  at  the 
outset  of  his  work.  The  fact  is,  that  the  advantage 
of  individual  talent  and  capacity  is  disguised  in  the 
list  given  by  Adam  Smith,  under  the  term,  "in- 
creased dexterity  of  the  workman."  This  appears  in 
the  section  "  Of  the  principle  which  gives  occasion  to 
the  division  of  labour,"  where  he  argues  that  the 
difference   of   natural  talents    in    different    men,    i$ 


THE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  i8i 

much  less  than  we  are  aware  of,  and  that  the 
apparent  difference  is  "  not  the  cause,  but  the  effect 
of  division  of  labour,"  and  arises,  "  not  so  much 
from  nature,  as  from  habit,  custom,  and  education." 

It  is  much  more  remarkable,  and  a  very  curious 
instance  of  the  unconscious  arrogance  of  the  science 
founded  on  the  speculations  of  Adam  Smith,  imagin- 
ing itself  to  be  a  spontaneous  growth  of  these  later 
centuries,  like  the  industrial  system,  whose  method  it 
reflected  and  described,  and  in  no  way  indebted  to 
the  wisdom  of  earlier  ages,  that  the  late  Professor 
Fawcett,  in  noting  the  supposed  omission  of  Adam 
Smith,  should  represent  the  missing  principle  as 
supplied  by  the  discovery  of  Mr.  Babbage !  The 
reader  who  studies  Political  Economy  as  a  part  of 
the  knowledge  of  the  social  life  of  men,  governed  by 
the  principles  which  the  experience  and  the  wisdom 
of  ages  has  established,  though  one  age  has  differed 
from  another  in  the  mode  of  their  expression,  will  be 
inclined  to  wonder  why  Mr.  Babbage  should  invent 
what  is  the  leading  principle  in  the  most  important 
constructive  work  of  Plato,  even  if  there  do  not  float 
across  his  mind  some  hazy  memories  from  the  writings 
of  S.  Paul.  Most  people  will  be  inclined  to  agree 
with  Plato,  and  Mr.  Babbage,  and  Professor  Fawcett, 
and  to  think  that  the  differences  of  natural  talent 


i82  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

and  ability,  transmitted  or  created  by  the  intricate 
laws  of  heredity,  are  material,  and  are  clearly 
distinct  from  the  special  aptitudes  resulting  from  the 
education  and  the  habit  of  the  individual  life.  A 
consideration,  such  as  we  here  propose,  of  division  of 
labour,  as  representing  the  moral  method  of  economic 
life,  might  proceed  upon  either  theory,  regarding  the 
differentiation  of  individual  capacity,  with  Adam 
Smith,  as  the  effect  of  industrial  organization,  or, 
with  our  other  authorities,  as  partly  its  cause  and 
partly  its  effect.  I  shall  prefer,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
to  proceed  upon  the  latter  hypothesis,  because  I 
believe  it  to  be  true  in  itself  I  shall  do  so  without 
discussing  the  alternative,  because  I  suppose  this  to 
be  the  more  generally  accepted  view. 

It  has   been   observed   that  division   of  labour  is 
The  division  not   an   altogether  fortunate  name  for  the 

of  labour 

implies  the    svstcm  of  iudustHal  organization  which  it  is 

combination       •/  c 

and^Ehr^*^^  used  to  denote.  This  system  has  two  main 
functions,  fcaturcs — the  combination  of  labourers,  and 
the  division  of  functions.  The  division  is  a  feature 
in  the  development  of  that  combination,  which  is  the 
first  step  towards  what  might,  perhaps,  be  best 
described  as  a  whole  under  the  name  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  labour. 

The  first  question,  then,  which  we  have  to  ask  in  a 


THE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  183 

moral  view  of  the  system  is,  what  leads  men  to  com- 
bine ?      And  we  may  go  to   Plato  for  our 

•^      *=•  I.  Need  is 

answer.  It  is  "  our  need  " — our  common  need,  ^^^.^^Xna- 
our  mutual  need  one  of  another.  Poverty 
is  the  first  moral  endowment  of  man.  He  faces  the 
world  with  need  as  his  spur  to  energy,  the  curse 
which  he  has  to  convert  into  a  blessing.  Sheer 
physical  need  is  his  first  safeguard  against  sloth,  and 
remains  his  safeguard  against  selfishness.  Common 
need  is  the  source  of  fellowship.  The  mere  fact  of 
need  appeals  to  that  human  sympathy,  which  is  the 
sense  of  a  condition  that  we  share.  And  the  desire 
of  that  enrichment  of  life,  which  enables  us  to  satisfy 
anything  more  than  the  most  elementary  needs  of 
physical  existence,  is  a  constant  motive  to  engage 
in  that  organized  system  of  life,  of  which  mutual 
need  is  the  very  spirit  and  life. 

One  is  sometimes  disposed  to  regret  that  the  desire 
to  limit  the  range  of  an  excessive  interference  in  the 
working  of  the  economic  system,  on  the  part  of  the 
State,  led  the  science  of  economics  to  assume  the  name 
of  Political  Economy.  But  the  name  seems  in  some 
degree  to  mark  the  fact  that  man,  as  an  economic 
animal,  as  a  creature  that  provides  by  deliberate 
methods  for  his  physical  needs,  is  essentially  a  social 
animal.      The  general  reason  and  knowledge  of  right 


i84  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

which  is  embodied  in  law,  and  animates  a  political 
constitution,  strictly  so  called,  is  active  in  the  form 
of  social  instinct  in  organizing  the  economic  system. 
Construe  this  instinct  into  an  explicit  principle,  and 
it  declares,  not  indeed  that  nature  is  an  enemy  with 
whom  man's  single  force  does  not  enable  him  to 
cope;  but,  at  least,  that  nature  invites  that  com- 
bination and  organization  of  human  forces,  by  which 
the  resources  of  nature  are  disclosed,  and  the  social 
character  of  man  is  realized  and  wrought  out.  It 
gives  an  abiding  moral  value  to  the  organization  of 
labour,  that  it  keeps  constantly  in  view  the  sheer 
need  which  is  the  first  impulse  to  the  vigour  and 
fellowship  of  social  life  ;  that  it  emphasizes  fellowship 
as  the  condition  of  mere  life;  and,  above  all,  that  it 
exhibits  the  necessity,  which,  indeed,  it  tends  to 
exaggerate  into  a  misfortune,  of  mutual  dependence 
and  mutual  support.  The  worst  evils  incident  to  the 
working  of  the  economic  system  have  at  least  this 
moral  advantage :  so  far  from  disguising,  they  de- 
clare that  need  is  the  first  condition  of  life,  that 
mutual  need  and  its  correlative,  mutual  help,  are  the 
constant  condition  of  happiness.  The  facts  that  are 
eloquent  in  declaring  the  principle  may  speak  of 
need  unsatisfied  in  the  poor,  whom  we  have  always 
with  us,  of  the  privilege  of  help  disregarded,  and  the 


THE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  185 

duty  of  relieving  need  undone.  But  eloquent  they 
are,  nevertheless,  of  the  first  and  last  condition  of 
spiritual  progress,  in  the  poverty  whose  physical  ex- 
ample is  the  parable  and  sacrament  of  that  spiritual 
insufficiency  of  man  to  himself,  which  makes  the  poor 
in  spirit  blest.  The  system,  indeed,  preserves  the 
vitality  of  the  moral  principle  of  need  more  and 
more  completely  as  it  is  more  and  more  efficiently 
developed.  The  needs  of  the  savage,  whose  life 
afibrds  the  lowest  example  of  the  organization  of 
labour,  though  they  may  press  hard  upon  what  seems 
to  us  all  but  an  impoverished  life,  are  nothing  to 
those  of  any  member  of  a  civilized  society,  whom 
no  perfection  of  industrial  organization  will  allow  to 
forget  that  any  one  of  the  various  needs,  for  whose 
satisfaction  he  has  learnt  to  trust  to  the  effi^rts  of 
his  fellow-men,  may  fail  him  in  the  last  resort,  and 
leave  him  the  poorer  for  the  remembrance  of  what  is 
lost.  Mutual  need  is  the  very  life  of  the  system. 
It  supplies  the  constant  pressure  which  keeps  every 
man  in  his  place  and  at  work,  when  energy  and 
higher  motives  fail.  And  this  is  in  itself  a  moral  and 
spiritual  advantage,  the  constant  reading  of  a  lesson 
as  to  that  character  of  the  nature  of  man,  which  no 
moral  or  spiritual,  far  less  any  material  progress 
obliterate  from  our  minds,  except  to  our  loss. 


1 86  *  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

2.  The  system  of  the  organization  thus  rests  upon 
2  Division     a  foundation,  grows  out  of  a  root  of  human 

of  function  "-* 

cipk  oT""  need.  This  is  the  original  motive  to  organize 
works,  and  to  combine,  and  it  is  a  motive  which 
remains  constantly  in  operation.  We  have  next  to 
consider  the  principle  on  which  the  system  works. 
This  principle  is  the  performance  by  every  individual 
member   of  the  society  of  some  particular 

discerning 

for'^tSn-"^  function,   for  which   he    has    the    requisite 
(a)hispower  natural  aptitude,  and  has  received  the  re- 

to  help ;  .  -r»i  1  '11 

quisite  training.  Plato  has  summarized  the 
duty  of  the  member  of  a  society  in  a  phrase  of 
untranslateable  simplicity,^  which  we  can  only  repre- 
sent in  relation  to  the  present  matter  by  saying,  that 
the  duty  of  any  member  of  the  economic  body  is  to 
perform  the  economic  function  which  is  his  own. 

It  should  be  observed,  first,  that  this  principle 
assumes  a  natural  obligation,  arising  out  of  a  natural 
capacity  to  help.  If  poverty  is  the  first,  the  faculty 
of  help  is  the  second  of  the  moral  endowments  of  man. 
Man,  as  man,  possesses  it,  though  man  differs  from 
man  in  the  form  which  it  may  take.  In  the  power 
to  share  his  fellow's  need,  and  to  identify  it  with  his 
own,  he  has  the  faculty  of  conceiving  a  social  purpose 
and  a  social  end ;  in  the  power  to  will  a  common  or 

^  Ta  aiiTov  TTpdmiv. 


THE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  187 

collective  good,  he  has  in  him  that  which  converts  all 
physical  capacities  for  the  service  of  his  own  life  into 
faculties  for  the  service  of  others.  And  this  faculty 
grows  into  an  obligation.  By  its  mere  presence  and 
existence  it  presses  towards  its  own  realization.  Its 
first  movement  reveals  that  what  seemed  the  desire 
of  an  individual  was  in  idea,  and  must  become  in 
fact,  the  impulse  of  the  fragment  and  part  of  a 
collective  life.  And  this  collective  life,  revealed  as 
the  condition  of  the  individual,  existence,  becomes  the 
source  of  that  kind  of  motive  which  we  distinguish 
from  mere  desire  as  obligation  or  duty.  But  what 
we  find  in  men,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  and  in  ourselves, 
is  not  the  mere  faculty  and  correspondent  obligation 
to  help  in  the  abstract,  but  faculties  often  difficult  to 
discern  and  define,  but,  when  rightly  discerned  and 
successfully  defined,  precise  and  particular  in  their 
tendency  and  scope,  giving  rise  to  desires  and  ambi- 
tions— obligations,  if  their  fulfilment  were  not  thwarted 
by  the  perversities  of  life ;  duties,  if  they  were  not 
transformed  by  the  magic  of  the  spirit  of  help,  whose 
patient  working  meets  and  overmasters  every  difficulty 
and  every  check — transformed  into  higher  duties  of 
abnegation  and  self-sacrifice.  If  ever  our  system  of 
education  becomes  anything  more  than  a  haphazard 
jumble  of  preparation  for  examinations  of  a  greater 


i88  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

or  less  degree  o£  practical  inutility ;  if  ever  the  dis- 
cernment of  human  individuality  and  the  development 
of  various  capacity  is  recognized  as  an  essential  part 
of  that  moral  training  of  the  whole  man,  which  is 
not  yet  seen  to  be  its  purpose  and  its  scope,  we  may 
succeed  in  strewing  the  waysides  of  human  industry 
with  fewer  wrecks  of  thwarted  and  deformed  desire,  of 
stunted  and  perverted  ambition,  of  power  to  help,  and 
joy  in  congenial  service,  wasted,  withered,  and  trodden 
under  foot.  As  it  is,  let  us  at  least  see  that  division 
of  labour  rightly  means  that  every  man  has  some 
work  which  he  is  fitted  to  do,  in  which  he  is  destined 
to  rejoice,  through  which  he  is  called,  by  a  Divine 
vocation  to  convey  his  own  peculiar  share  of  that 
Divine  blessing,  which  is  bestowed  through  the  agency 
of  human  wills  and  hearts ;  though  the  work  may  be 
undone,  the  rejoicing  not  even  longed  for,  because 
it  is  unknown,  the  call  unheard,  and  the  blessing  sus- 
pended over  lives  that  have  to  find  another  blessing, 
or  to  go  unblest,  because  we  have  not  learned  that 
man  is  made  to  help — that  each  man  is  made  to  help 
in  his  own  way,  shaped  by  laws  and  forces  which  we 
do  not  yet  understand,  but  whose  results  we  can 
perceive  if  we  will,  or  disregard  if  we  choose,  to 
our  loss. 

And,  following  the  development  of  the   principle 


THE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  189 

in  those  cases,  in  which  this  need  is  not  disregarded, 
let  us  see,  further,  how  the  natural  faculty  {B)  the  life 

ia  which  it 

and  natural  obligation,  as  they  demand  a  finds  vent; 
special  education,  so  exact  a  particular  devotion. 
They  exact  it ;  and  where  a  man  finds  his  true 
vocation,  he  may  see  how  they  find  it — find  it  often 
in  spite  of  imperfect  and  ill-directed  education — and 
make  the  happiness  of  lives  absorbed  in  congenial 
duty,  where  every  power  is  employed  and  is  at  work, 
and  duty  and  desire  become  so  far  identified,  that  the 
intoxication  of  unimpeded  energy  brings  the  danger 
of  overtasking  the  powers  of  a  brain  and  heart, 
whose  labour  is  tiring  in  proportion  as  they  work  in 
one.  Contrast  the  life  of  the  man  whose  life  is  spent 
in  the  work,  not  merely  which  he  likes,  but  which  he 
can  do,  Avhich  gives  scope  to  his  special  ability,  with 
that  of  the  man  who  is  busy,  but  in  work  for  which 
he  has  no  special  fitness,  and  towards  which  he  has 
no  natural  disposition,  whether  because  what  special 
fitness  or  natural  disposition  was  in  him  has  never 
been  drawn  out  or  discovered,  or  because  the  dull 
necessity  of  an  imperfect  organization  of  labour  has 
forced  upon  him  the  need  of  some  work,  but  has  pre- 
cluded him  from  that  which  he  would  choose,  or,  at 
any  rate,  has  found  him  none  but  this.  The  life  of 
a  man  should  be,  as  far  as  he  and  others  can  make  it 


I90  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

SO,  one  steady  progress  from  a  dimly  felt  desire,  through 
a  clearly  conceived  ambition,  to  the  daily  more  perfect 
performance  of  a  task,  in  which  the  capacity  to  hope 
for  perfection  would  be  the  source  of  ceaseless  efforts 
to  excel  the  standard  that  has  been  attained,  to  desire 
new  methods  and  imagine  higher  aims,  and  in  which 
the  stem  control  of  duty  would  be  felt  none  the  less, 
because  duty  was  allowed  to  be  the  guide  to  happi- 
ness and  help. 

There  is  a  moral  gain  and  a  nobility,  no  doubt — for 
(c)  the  sacri-  those  who  cau  rise  to  this  view  of  their 
subordina-     misfortuuc — lu   thc    earnest    spirit   of   self- 

tion  which  it 

demands.  sacrificc  aud  humility,  with  which  good  men 
abandon  the  life  they  would  have  loved  for  that 
which  the  necessity  of  their  own  lives,  or  of  those 
they  love,  forces  upon  a  reluctant  nature,  and  upon 
a  mind  that  is  always  longing  to  glance  aside  at 
some  other  aim.  By  no  means  let  us  ignore  or 
underrate  the  moral  rank  of  a  virtue,  for  which 
our  system  affords  so  many  opportunities.  In  any 
conceivable  perfection  of  the  working  of  the  system 
of  division  of  labour,  there  must  be  many  dull 
lives,  many  careers  in  which  labour  cannot  excite 
a  lively  interest,  though  it  may  enjoy  a  real  allevia- 
tion in  other  and  collateral  pursuits.  Sacrifice  and 
humility  of  this  kind  the  organization  of  labour  will 


tHE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  191 

always  demand,  and  if  the  nature  of  the  person  who 
has  humbly  to  submit  to  the  sacrifice  is  not  outraged 
and  wronged  by  the  task  which  we  set  him  to  do, 
such  sacrifice  and  humility  will  be  near  akin  to  those 
which  the  system  of  division  of  labour  forces  upon  all, 
who  have  to  choose  for  life  a  defined  and  limited 
career,  and  to  content  themselves  with  performing,  as 
their  personal  contribution,  some  small  part  only  of 
the  work  whose  success  they  wish  to  see  achieved. 
For  every  definite  career  involves  the  self-sacrifice  of 
limitation,  of  limitation  to  be  accepted  in  the  end 
at  which  we  are  allowed  to  aim,  of  limitation  to  be 
overcome  in  the  means  which  are  off<ered  to  our  use. 
All  ambitions  look  large  at  the  first;  they  narrow 
down  to  the  dimensions  of  fact.  The  first  dream  is 
vast ;  it  shrinks  to  the  level  of  human  stature.  Its 
vastness  was  no  illusion  in  itself;  it  was  prophetic  of 
what  shall  be  accomplished  through  us,  unless  we  be 
misled  by  vanity,  and  in  so  far  as  our  efforts  have 
not  failed  our  hope.  Through  us,  but  not  by  us. 
Ours  is  the  small  and  limited  part  of  what  we  saw 
should  be  done.  Still  less  can  the  mind,  confident  in 
the  choice  of  its  vocation,  predict  the  means,  unchosen 
and  uncongenial  to  the  fancy  of  an  untaught  desire, 
through  which,  by  the  reluctant  sacrifice  of  fancy,  an 
accomplishment   of  ambition   shall   be   wrought,   far 


192  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

exceeding  in  substantial  joy  and  good  the  wide  and 
shadowy  imaginations  of  youth.  Nor  will  the 
inevitable  sacrifice  even  thus  obtain  its  fruit,  unless 
mind  and  heart  are  humble  to  unlearn  mistakes,  to 
banish  false  ideals,  to  be  guided  by  the  thread  of  duty 
which  cannot  be  mistaken,  along  roads  whose  course 
we  cannot  see  to  lead  to  the  end  which  we  desire.  The 
law  of  the  organization  of  labour  is,  every  man  to  his 
own  function — every  man  to  a  limited  function,  small 
in  comparison  with  the  aim  by  which  its  fulfilment 
ought  to  be  inspired,  small  in  comparison  with  the 
complex  system  of  human  forces  by  which  alone  any 
great  aim  can  be  attained,  in  which  every  ambition, 
however  justly  high,  must  be  content  to  be  subordinate. 
Nor  is  it  allowed  to  any  consolatory  knowledge  that 
the  object  for  which  we  sacrifice  is  worthy,  and  the 
work  to  which  we  contribute  great,  to  rob  sacrifice 
of  the  reality  and  the  pain  of  its  denial,  or  to  make 
humility  a  disguise  of  pride.  In  mere  worldly  success, 
it  is  the  men  who  make  sacrifices,  or  accept  them, 
coolly  and  relentlessly,  who  win  the  race  ;  it  is  the  men 
who  actually  and  really  do  think  nothing  too  small 
or  too  mean  for  their  attention  and  their  efibrt,  who 
rise  to  positions  of  command,  and  even  then  do  not 
lose  their  humility.  Meanwhile,  every  sacrifice  and 
every  humble  life  is  ennobled,  in  which  it  is  felt  that 


THE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  193 

we  bear  our  part,  however  small,  in  the  work  which 
God  works  from  the  foundation  of  the  world,  and 
bring  into  the  sacrifices  which  we  make  for  the  sake 
of  those  we  love,  and  those  with  whom  we  live,  the 
spirit  of  the  one  Sacrifice  once  made  by  Him,  Who 
came  to  do  Ood's  Will  and  was  content  to  do  it. 

These,  then,  are  the  principles  involved  in  the 
system  by  which  each  man  performs  the  particular 
function  which  is  assigned  to  him — the  principles  of 
sacrifice  and  of  humility. 

3.  Lastly,  we  have  to  ask,  what  is  the  moral  issue 
towards  which  the  working  of  this  system  3.  spiritual 

,  union  is  the 

leads.     And  the  answer  is,  that  the  ideal  of  issue  to- 

wards  which 

organization  is  spiritual  union.  As  he  is  led  "  '^^'^^• 
along  the  path  which  the  division  of  labour  assigns 
to  him,  a  man  ceases  to  expect  to  do  or  be  the  whole 
of  that  which  his  ideal  or  his  hope  held  before  him. 
But  he  and  his  work  become  a  part  of  a  larger  whole. 
The  larger  end  which  he  serves  fills  his  vision  and 
absorbs  his  desire.  He  is  greater  because  he  is  a  part 
of  a  greater  thing,  and  a  part  in  such  wise  that  the 
greatness  is  distributed  to  all  the  parts,  and  not 
divided  amongst  them.  For  the  division  of  function 
itself  is  a  part  of  the  accomplishment  of  any  particular 
design,  and  a  man  glories  in  a  limitation  which,  in 
himself  and  in  others,  contributes  more  than  anything 

o 


194  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

else  to  the  fulfilment  of  their  common  end.  And,  in 
proportion  as  he  sees  this  to  be  the  case,  will  the 
labourer  in  some  partial  province  of  a  single  industry 
see  in  his  limited  labour,  not  merely  a  contribution  to 
this  single  end,  but  his  own  share  in  the  attainment 
of  the  universal  end  of  that  unconscious  organiza- 
tion of  mankind  for  common  happiness  in  mutual 
help,  which  all  special  organization  s^of  labour,  under- 
taken in  the  true  spirit,  serve  to  make  at  once  more 
conscious  and  more  perfect.  And  this  organization 
itself,  and  the  spirit  that  belongs  to  it,  become  to 
every  single  labourer  who  is  subject  to  them,  as  they 
are  in  truth  and  in  themselves,  a  good  to  be  aimed 
at  and  achieved,  to  be  lived  for  and  enjoyed,  in  any 
and  every  particular  organization  in  which  this  spirit 
is  embodied  and  obeyed.  As  "  business  '*  is  a  magic 
word  to  business  men,  calling  up  a  whole  ideal  of 
trustworthy  character  and  methodical  sense  directed 
to  any  end  that  may  happen  to  be  in  view,  so  labour 
or  work  comes  to  mean  the  organized  system  of  life, 
in  which  a  man  gives  himself  and  his  whole  powers 
to  the  particular  work  that  he  has  in  hand,  knowing 
that  in  doing  so  he  gives  himself  to  the  spirit  in 
which  that  work  is  done — the  spirit  of  mutual  subor- 
dination, seen  as  the  high  end  of  human  work, 
and  of  millions  of  laborious  lives,  in  which  men  can 


THE  ETHICS  OF  DIVISION  OF  LABOUR.  195 

detach  their  spiritual  vision  from  the  details  through 
which,  nevertheless,  this  spirit  is  realized  in  fact,  and 
concentrate  it  upon  the  spiritual  object  itself — the 
mutual  subordination  of  soul  to  soul,  in  the  universal 
labour  of  human  help. 

And  last,  but  not  least,  the  worker  in  the  organized  \  \ 
system  of  labour  learns  and  practices  subordination  ' 
not  only  to  a  great  ideal  end,  and  helps  not  only 
the  life  of  a  dimly  conceived  community,  living  and 
working  for  the  most  part  out  of  his  sight.  The 
vision  of  this  ideal  and  the  devotion  to  humanity  are 
inspired  and  made  real  by  the  sight  of  human  faces, 
and  the  feeling  of  human  needs  in  men  and  women 
and  children  above  him  and  below  him  and  around 
him,  towards  whom  his  own  daily  and  definite  task 
directs  his  eyes,  with  whom  his  daily  labour  is  a 
bond.  The  atoms  of  this  great  spiritual  organization 
are  human  atoms  after  all.  They  cohere  by  human 
love  and  kindness  and  help,  by  a  humility  and  a 
forbearance  which  are  practical  and  real,  which  make 
ties  between  soul  and  soul  of  memory  and  gratitude 
and  familiar  love. 

Even  in  the  smallest  corner  of  the  world  of  labour, 
those  who  work  together,  just  because  they  work 
each  at  their  own  appointed  part,  diverge  minutely 
but  really  from  one  another  along  diverse  roads,  the 


196  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

intervals  between  which  must  be  bridged  by  sympathy 
and  self-denial.  Each  has  to  live  out  the  spirit  of 
his  own  peculiar  work,  and  to  harmonize  one  with 
another  the  ideas  which  shape  themselves  from  day 
to  day  in  the  mind  of  each,  as  to  how  his  particular 
part  of  the  general  object  is  to  be  attained,  and  in 
what  relation  to  the  parts  with  which  other  men  are 
charged.  Perhaps  it  is  in  these  details  that  the 
keenest  moral  test  is  applied  by  the  organization  of 
labour  to  those  who  share  in  it,  where  they  are  called 
by  it  to  follow  in  His  footsteps.  Who  not  only  said  of 
Himself,  "  My  Father  worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work," 
but  of  Whom  it  was  said,  "  He  pleased  not  Himself" 


XI. 
PROPERTY. 

"  Is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own  ? " — 
S.  Matt.  xx.  15. 

One  of  the  delusions  as  to  economic  duty,  of  which  we 
have  to  dispose,  is  that  in  economic  matters  Theproperty 

of  God  in 

we  have  to  do  with  thino^s,  or  with  people  the  persons 

'^   '  ^        ^  and  souls  of 

who  may  be  treated  as  things.  This  is  [JpeoVpro- 
especially  the  case  w^hen  we  are  dealing  things. 
with  commodities  as  property.  It  is  curious,  there- 
fore, that  the  words  which  are  probably  most  often 
the  subject  of  unconscious  quotation,  when  a  man 
claims  the  full  and  unlimited  right  of  property,  are 
originally  used,  not  of  things,  but  of  persons.  It  is 
the  eternal  wage  of  the  spiritual  labour  of  life,  the 
destiny  of  the  undying  soul,  of  which  it  is  said,  "  Is  it 
not  lawful  for  me  to  do  what  I  will  with  mine  own  ? " 
In  fact,  we  never  reach  the  moral  or  spiritual  truth  of 
any,  the  slightest  of  mere  material  things,  until  we 


198  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

have  reached  through  it,  and  found  out  the  personal 
relations  of  which  it  is  the  occasion  or  the  result.  It 
is  a  touching-point  between  soul  and  soul,  between 
the  soul  and  the  Eternal  Spirit.  When  the  memory  of 
it  arises  in  that  flash  of  universal  recollection,  which 
we  may  picture  as  an  element  in  the  judgment  of  the 
lives  of  men,  it  will  recall  the  pain  of  remembered 
hate,  or  the  pleasure  of  remembered  love,  the  remorse 
of  neglected  duty,  or  the  gratitude  for  duty  done. 

Plato  has  made  Socrates  say  of  the  soul  of  man, 
that  it  is  a  possession  of  the  gods ;  and  it  is  virtually 
of  this  possession  that  it  is  said,  "  Is  it  not  lawful  for 
me  to  do  what  I  wiU  with  mine  own  ? "  Certainly, 
the  Bible  claims  for  God,  over  and  over  again,  the 
right  to  dispose  of  man  as  His  property.  His  own. 
"  Who  art  thou  that  repliest  against  God  ?  Shall  the 
thing  formed  say  to  him  that  formed  it.  Why  hast 
thou  made  me  thus  ?  Hath  not  the  potter  power 
over  the  clay,  of  the  same  lump  to  make  one  vessel 
unto  honour,  and  another  unto  dishonour?"^  "Let 
the  potsherd  strive  with  the  potsherds  of  the  earth. 
Shall  the  clay  say  to  him  that  fashioneth  it.  What 
makest  thou?"^  "But  now,  O  Lord,  Thou  art  our 
Father;  we  are  the  clay,  and  Thou  our  Potter;  and 
we  are  all  the  work  of  Thy  Hand."^  The  burden 
1  Eom.  ix.  20.  ^  ig^.  xlv.  9.  ^  jg^.  Lxiy.  8. 


PROPERTY.  199 

tlirouo:hout  is,  "  Is  it  not  lawful  for  Him  to  do  what 
He  will  with  his  own  ? " 

In  a  moral  view,  as  we  have  said,  we  never  deal 
with  things ;  always  with  the  persons,  of  our  relation 
with  whom  things  are  the  symbol  and  occasion. 
Every  assertion  of  property  in  things  is  a  virtual 
assertion  of  property  in  some  part  or  feature  in  the 
lives  of  others.  It  is  worth  while,  then,  to  see  what 
limits  the  Bible  suggests  for  the  right  of  property, 
in  that  instance  in  which  property  in  souls  is  most 
indisputable  and  most  absolute — the  ownership  of 
God  over  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men  whom  He  has 
created. 

"Is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to  do  what  I  will  with 
mine  own  ? "  There  is  the  assertion  to  the  right ;  but 
it  is  asserted  plainly  and  clearly  here  only  as  the 
right  to  do  good.  "  Is  thine  eye  evil  because  I  am 
ofood  ? "  And  where  it  seems  to  be  asserted  other- 
wise,  as  by  S.  Paul,  in  the  passage  quoted  above, 
it  is  in  controversy  with  those  who  deny  God's 
possessicm,  and  question  His  justice  and  His  love,  to 
whom  the  only  possible  answer  is  an  assertion  of  the 
abstract  right.  The  nature  of  the  right  and  the  law 
of  its  exercise  are,  indeed,  always  to  be  found  in  the 
subject  in  whom  it  resides.  The  child,  who  forgets 
the  wisdom  of  a  mother's  or  a  father's  love,  can  only 


200  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

be  met  by  the  demand  of  implicit  obedience  to  a 
right  that  has  no  limit,  except  what  it  gives  to  itself 
as  the  command  of  love.  There  is  tenderness  as  well 
as  power  in  the  words,  "Is  it  not  lawful  for  Me  to 
do  what  I  will  with  Mine  oivn  ?  " 

Let  us  follow  out  the  nature  and  source  of  the 
right  of  property  in  things,  as  it  is  commonly  claimed. 
The  parallel  of  God's  ownership  of  men  will  scarcely 
forsake  us  at  any  step  of  the  way. 

1.  The  simplest  and  most  obvious  source  of  the 
I.  Property  right  of  property  is  labour.  We  have  seen 
ofthecrea-    that   when  the   Bible    claims   for   God   the 

tive  power 

of  labour.  right  of  owncrship,  the  claim  is  made  on  the 
ground  of  creation.  Man,  made  in  the  image  of  God, 
has  the  image  of  the  creative  power,  in  his  preroga- 
tive to  fashion,  out  of  the  elements  supplied  to  him, 
that  which,  because  he  has  made  it,  he  shall  feel  to 
be  his  own.  Out  of  the  indifferent  mass  of  material 
things  his  judgment  has  chosen  that  which  will 
answer  his  purpose.  The  mere  raw  material  of  labour 
is  his  by  the  right  of  discernment  and  choice.  His 
mind  has  gone  out  upon  it,  and  is  embodied  in  it,  as 
a  thing  set  apart  to  be  the  subject  of  his  labour  and 
to  serve  his  end.  And  actual  labour  itself  makes 
things  the  record,  the  vehicle,  and  the  embodiment, 
of  the  will,  and  effort,  and  purpose,  by  which  they 


PROPERTY.  201 

are  fashioned  and  shaped,  until  the  original  stuff  is 
so  disguised,  that  there  seems  to  be  nothing  left  of 
what  was  given  to  the  forming  hand.  Where  land 
in  its  natural  state  still  remains  to  be  appropriated 
for  the  first  time  by  the  labour  of  man,  it  is  by  the 
labour,  first  of  fencing  in,  and  then  of  cultivation, 
that  the  right  of  property  may  be  claimed.  That  on 
which  a  man  has  spent  his  labour  has  become  a  part 
of  himself,  his  soul  has  gone  out  upon  it,  his  mind 
and  will  have  left  their  impress  upon  it,  nothing  but 
his  own  gift  can  alienate  from  him  that  which  his 
hands  have  made  to  be  what  it  is. 

Law  secures  to  men  what  their  labour  has  made. 
Law  constitutes  property ;  that  is,  property  is  a  social 
fact,  the  creation  of  society.  But  the  social  conscience 
proceeds  upon  principles  in  allowing  and  securing  pro- 
perty to  this  man  or  to  that.  It  is  with  the  principles 
on  which  it  proceeds  that  we  have  here  to  do,  and, 
first,  with  the  general  social  recognition,  more  or  less 
perfectly  embodied  in  law,  that  a  man  is  entitled  to 
possess  what  he  has  made. 

This  claim  to  property  pursues  the  results  of  labour 
through  the  most  complicated  processes  of  exchange 
and  distribution.  There  are  other  principles  on  which 
property  depends,  but  they  in  turn  depend  on  this. 
A  man  may  own  what  has  been  given  to  him,  or  has 


202  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

descended  to  him  by  a  succession  of  gifts.  At  the 
other  end  of  the  chain  will  be  the  man  whose  labour 
first  gave  him  the  right  to  possess,  and  therefore  the 
right  to  give.  A  man  may  come  to  be  the  recognized 
possessor  of  what  has  not  been  given  to  him,  even 
where  it  is  not  the  result  of  his  own  creative  labour, 
if  his  use,  in  which  labour  is  an  element,  has  assumed 
for  him  the  property  in  that  which  had  subsided,  as 
unused,  into  the  condition  of  raw  material,  of  an 
unappropriated  natural  thing.  A  man  owns  what  he 
earns  because  we  recognize  that,  through  the  division 
of  labour  and  its  produce,  this  is  what  he  has  virtually 
made,  it  is  his  own. 

There  are  higher  and  lower  degrees  of  property, 
according  to  the  amount,  and  to  the  individual  character 
of  the  labour  which  has  created  that  which  is  possessed. 
The  labour  of  mind  and  will  and  hand  is  often 
directed  through  the  immediate  subject  of  labour  to 
some  object,  which,  by  means  of  it,  is  to  be  attained. 
Where  the  heart  is  in  the  object  itself  which  is 
fashioned  by  the  hand,  there  seems  a  closer  and 
more  indissoluble  union  between  the  maker  and 
that  which  he  has  made.  Authors  and  artists 
have  a  love  for  the  works  in  which  their  soul  has 
gone  out  from  them ;  and  no  sale  or  exchange  can 
altogether    alienate    from    its    spiritual    owner    the 


PROPERTY.  203 

creation  of  genius  or  the  work  of  love.  The  man 
who  sets  his  heart  even  on  making  a  fortune,  loves 
his  wealth  more  than  the  son  to  whom  he  bequeaths 
it.  Aristotle  has  observed  how  this  principle  of  affec- 
tion going  out  into  that  on  which  we  have  spent  our 
pains  is  an  element  even  in  friendship,  in  the  case  of 
those  who  feel  persistently  well-disposed  towards 
men  on  whom  they  have  conferred  a  benefit.^  It  is, 
perhaps,  a  deeper  view  of  the  same  truth  to  say  that 
a  man  cannot  easily  detach  himself  from  that  on 
which  he  has  spent  his  love.  Men  do,  in  fact,  extend 
the  range  of  their  personality  in  life,  in  the  lives 
whose  opportunities  and  resources  they  create  or 
increase  by  gifts;  and  prolong  their  existence,  their 
will,  and  their  affection  beyond  their  death,  in  those 
to  whom  they  bequeath  the  result  of  their  labours. 

2.  And  this  is  the  second  source  of  property — gift. 
By  the  gift  of  the  living  or  of  the  dead,  as  2.  Property 
well  as  by  our  own  labour,  we  hold  things  to  of  gift  from 

the  living  or 

be  our  own.  Here  property  is  a  directly  the  dead, 
social  thing.  The  right  whose  origin  is  in  the  labour 
of  the  original  maker  and  possessor,  secured  to  him 
by  the  social  recognition  of  the  public  conscience  and 
by  law,  is  secured  by  the  same  authority,  as  a  right 
of  another  kind,  to  the  man  to  whom  he  has  chosen  to 
»  Arist,  ♦«  Eth.  Nic,"  IV.  i.  20 ;  IX.  vii.  4.    Plato,  "  Rep.,"  i.  330. 


204  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

make  a  gift  of  that  which  was  his  own.  To  the  new 
owner  it  belongs  by  the  exercise  of  the  good  will  of 
the  giver.  All  property  bequeathed  is  our  own  plainly 
by  this  right.  There  are  cases  in  which  the  bequest 
is  rather  the  transmission  of  an  ancestral  purpose,  for 
the  preservation  of  the  corporate  existence  of  a  family 
in  its  several  successive  representatives,  than  the  gift 
of  the  immediately  preceding  owner.  But  some 
original  labour  or  service,  some  exertion  of  power 
over  the  subject  of  property  has  been  the  first  source 
of  ownership,  and  some  transmission  by  gift  has  made 
ownership  a  right  to  the  present  possessor. 

But  there  is  another  and  equally  important  case  of 
whether  appropriation  by  gift.  We  have  observed 
through  the  that,  under  the  existing  system  of  division 

process  of 

exchange.  Qf  labour  and  exchange  of  produce,  a  man 
possesses  much  of  what  he  owns  as  the  indirect 
result  of  his  own  labour.  It  is  to  be  observed, 
however,  that  this  strictly  applies  only  to  that 
portion  of  the  produce  of  the  common  labour  which 
would  have  resulted  from  his  own  unaided  work ; 
and,  since  a  division  is  inconceivable  of  the  hypo- 
thetical produce  of  isolated  labour  from  the  rest  of 
the  joint  result  of  the  organized  work  of  mankind, 
we  may  say  that,  in  the  ownership  even  of  what  a 
man  earns,  there  enters  into  his  right  another  element 


PROPERTY.  205 

besides  the  right  to  own  that  which  he  creates.  In 
all  exchange,  by  which  we  receive  our  share  of  the 
joint  produce  of  the  labour  in  which  we  bear  a  part, 
there  is  an  element  of  gift.  Exchange,  indeed,  is  a 
mutual  gift.  The  free-will  of  the  other  party  to  the 
exchange,  conveying  what  is  his  to  us,  is  the  source 
of  our  right  to  its  possession.  But,  beyond  this,  com- 
bination multiplies  the  produce  of  toil,  and  the  actual 
produce  we  receive  is  not  merely — as  the  result  of 
labour  itself — a  gift  of  God,  like  the  endowments  of 
whose  use  it  comes ;  it  is  a  social  gift,  received  from 
those  who  willingly  share  with  us,  as  we  with  them, 
the  fruit  of  fellowship.  The  social  character  of 
property  by  gift  belongs,  therefore,  not  only  to  that 
which  we  owe  to  the  express  personal  donation  of 
friends  alive  or  dead,  but  also  to  all  that  passes  to  us 
by  exchange,  in  which  are  involved,  as  a  part  of  the 
forces  that  have  created  it,  not  merely  the  separate 
labour  of  every  hand  that  has  had  a  part  in  its  pro- 
duction, but  also  all  the  forces  of  that  fellowship,  into 
which  men  have  been  drawn  under  the  impulse  to 
provide  for  the  common  life. 

The  gift  of  inheritance  may  come  to  us  laden  with 
the  memories  of  individual  love,  with  the  traditions  of 
usefulness  and  of  good  will  embodied  in  the  substance, 
stamped  on  the  very  surface  of  that  which  we  inlierit. 


2o6  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

Property  may  be,  then,  eloquent  of  the  duties  which 
arise  out  of  its  social  character  as  a  gift.  Or,  again, 
it  may  come  to  us  from  unworthy  or  reluctant  hands. 
If  it  should  do  so,  we  shall  surely  feel,  not  that  it  is 
freed  from  the  burden  of  social  obligations,  but  rather, 
that  it  bears  a  larger  debt,  that  its  ownership  carries 
the  burden  of  a  duty,  to  make  up  in  some  measure 
the  arrears  of  use  and  fellowship  in  which  others  have 
failed,  to  embody  in  it  the  spirit,  through  which  the 
mere  fact  that  it  is  a  gift  at  all  should  colour  it, 
consecrating  and  beautifying  the  dull  and  unlovely 
material  of  selfishness  or  sin  with  the  purifying  and 
ennobling  energies  of  love. 

It  may  seem  a  paradox  to  import  into  the  product 
of  a  process  of  exchange,  conducted,  probably,  it  will 
be  said,  on  strictly  business  principles,  the  incongruous 
associations  of  gift  or  of  good  will.  The  answer  to 
this  objection  is  twofold.  In  the  first  place,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  direct  and  personal  good  will,  and  the 
pleasure  in  being  able  to  give  to  others  the  good 
which  our  combined  labour  puts  at  every  man's 
command,  are  very  much  more  real  and  practical 
forces  in  the  economic  world,  than  the  picture  left  on 
our  minds  by  popular  economic  science  would  lead  us 
to  imagine.  Fortunately,  when  the  question  once 
occurs  to  our  minds,  we  can  appeal  to  our  experience 


PROPERTY,  207 

to    correct    the    result   of   an  abuse   of  unscientific 
imagination. 

But  even  in  so  far  as  this  is  not  the  case,  and 
where  the  individual  from  whose  hands  we  actually 
receive  what  is  the  bounty  of  the  spirit  of  fellowship, 
or,  at  least,  the  result  of  the  combination  of  men  to 
serve  their  common  needs,  has  not  himself  acted  in 
this  spirit  or  desired  this  result,  we  need  not  keep  our 
possessions  as  the  clothing  and  embodiment  of  a  selfish- 
ness which  does  good  against  its  will.  The  enriched 
possessions  which  we  have  and  enjoy  are  the  produce 
of  a  system  which,  like  every  other  bodily  existence 
— like  the  system  of  inheritance,  for  example — has  a 
spirit  which  belongs  to  it,  and  is  at  home  in  it.  In 
obedience  to  this  spirit  its  purposes  are  best  fulfilled. 
This  is  the  relation  of  the  spirit  of  good  will  to  the 
system  of  exchange.  Exchange  is  essentially  exchange 
of  good,  and  of  good  the  greater  because  of  the  system 
which  makes  exchange  necessary.  All  the  purposes 
of  the  interchange  of  good  are  more  truly  and  com- 
pletely answered,  if  exchange  is  carried  out  in  the 
spirit  of  good  will.  We  are,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  in- 
debted to  the  man  from  whom  we  receive  that  increase 
of  produce  which  is  due  to  combination.  Reluctantly 
or  willingly,  hypocritically  or  sincerely,  he  has  given 
us  a  gift.     It  should  have  been  given  in  the  spirit  of 


2o8  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

giving.  If  it  was  not,  it  brings  with  it  a  share  in 
that  sad,  but  self-rewarding  duty  which  forms  a  part 
of  almost  every  social  obligation — the  duty  of  acting 
up  to  an  ideal  which  we  desire  the  more  to  see  realized 
in  fact,  because  fact,  as  it  is,  contrasts  with  it. 

3.  We  have,  so  far,  spoken  of  labour  and  gift  as  the 
3.  Property  sourccs  of  thc  right  of  property,  without 
ofuse,  whkh  drawing  out  the  obligations  which  arise  from 

is  the  duty  •  i  i  t       • 

of  possession  thc   cousidcration   that  they   are   so.     It  is 

and  Its  pn-  '' 

viiege.  1^^  fulfilment  of  those  obligations  which 
constitutes  the  third  element  in  the  right  of  property 
— use. 

Use  is  not  often  in  itself  a  source  of  the  right  of 
property.  It  is  so  in  some  cases.  Right  of  way  is 
an  instance  in  which  use  can  deprive  one  man  of 
exclusive  possession,  and  transfer  a  share  in  what 
belongs  to  him  to  others.  Prescription,  again,  is  an 
instance  of  use  superseding  any  other  rights  of 
property,  whatever  they  may  be.  But,  over  a  much 
vsdder  field  than  is  covered  by  such  instances  as  these, 
use  is  an  element  that  enters  into  the  right  of  posses- 
sion. We  have  seen  that  law,  and  the  operation  of 
the  social  conscience,  secure  to  man  the  possession  of 
what  has  become  his  own  by  his  own  labour,  or  by 
gift  and  bequest.  It  does  not  seem  too  much  to  say 
that  this  security  is  given,  within  very  large  limits,  on 


PROPERTY.  209 

condition  of  use,  and  is  barred  by  any  flagrant  mis- 
use of  what  is  otherwise  rightly  possessed.  Property 
is  constituted  by  law ;  where  there  is  no  law,  actual 
or  implicit,  there  is  no  property  strictly  so  called. 
But  law  claims  in  this,  as  in  other  matters,  to  act 
with  absolute  freedom  for  the  general  good.  It  is 
held  to  be  for  the  general  good  that  the  rights  of 
property  should  be  left  as  unconstrained  as  may  be. 
But  they  are  left  unconstrained  to  the  performance 
of  duty,  on  the  part  of  those  who  hold  them,  because 
it  is  held  to  be  for  the  general  good  that  they  should 
be  so,  because  it  is  believed  that  this  furnishes  the 
best  stimulus  and  security  for  their  use.  It  remains 
none  the  less  true  that  the  principle  and  condition,  on 
which  the  rights  of  property  are  secured  by  law,  is 
that  they  should  be  used  for  the  public  good. 

We  feel  use  to  be  an  element  in  possession.  A  man 
scarcely  realizes  that  he  has  property  until  he  has 
used  it.  There  is  a  far  more  real  and  genuine  posses- 
sion on  the  part  of  those  who  use  their  property  than 
on  the  part  of  those  who  neglect  it.  As  the  sustain- 
ing power  of  God  in  creation  carries  on  the  creative 
force  itself,  so  the  use  which  realizes  possession  is  often 
scarcely  distinguishable  from  the  labour  which  creates 
it.  Property  is  a  living  right,  existing  in  its  exercise. 
It  should  be  the  occasion  of  the  constant  putting  forth 

P 


2IO  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

of  force ;  it  should  be  tlie  sphere  of  wise  design  and 
energetic  work,  the  field  for  the  development  of  all 
the  faculties  of  that  personality  to  which  it  is  attached. 
And  further,  as  we  have  implied,  use  in  this  relation 
means  use  for  good,  use  for  the  good  of  others. 
Here,  again,  we  feel  that  true  use  makes  true  pos- 
session. A  spendthrift  can  scarcely  ever  be  said  to 
possess  the  wealth,  which  he  allows  to  slip  through 
his  fingers  in  purposeless  waste,  nor  a  miser  to  have 
any  property  in  that  which  lies  idle  in  his  idle  hands. 
True  possession  implies  use,  and  use  for  good.  And 
this  is  not  only  the  last  realization,  but  the  duty  and 
privilege  of  property.  It  is  its  duty.  The  man  who 
owns  what  has  cost  labour,  and  does  not  labour  with 
it,  is  false  to  the  principle  on  which  he  lives.  The 
man  who  owns  what  is  the  outcome  of  the  working 
of  the  spirit  of  fellowship  and  good  will,  or  the  direct 
bequest  of  love,  and  does  not  use  in  love  and  in  good 
will  what  they  have  given,  commits  a  distinct  and 
undoubted  wrong  against  those  from  whom  he  has 
received  what  he  calls  his  own.  Property  carries  with 
it,  not  the  exemption  from  labour,  but  the  tradition 
and  the  duty  of  labour.  Is  it  not  lawful  for  me  to 
do  what  I  will  with  my  own  ?  At  least  do — do 
something.  Do  not  let  it  rest  and  lie  idle.  It  is  your 
own,  it  is  a  part  of  yourself.     You  are  responsible  for 


PROPERTY.  211 

it,  for  its  inaction  and  its  inutility,  not  less  than  you 
would  be  for  dishonesty  in  gaining,  or  for  wrong  and 
crime  in  using  it. 

It  is  a  duty  to  use  it  for  the  good  of  others.  And 
this  duty  covers  the  whole  field  of  its  use.  It  is  a 
duty,  and  the  duty,  like  all  duties,  is  a  spiritual 
privilege.  It  is  your  own,  a  part  of  yourself,  of  the 
personality  which  is  consecrated  by  the  possession  of 
God  and  of  the  Spirit  which  works  everywhere  and 
always  in  love.  And  throughout,  in  every  part  of  it, 
you  are  in  contact  with  the  souls  and  bodies  of  men 
who  need,  and  who,  through  the  true  use  of  that  which 
you  possess,  may  be  satisfied  and  enriched.  There  is 
a  sacrifice  demanded  of  the  ease  and  unrestraint  of 
possession  in  the  constant  energies  of  use  and  help. 
It  may  be  that  the  duty  of  use  may  lead  along  a 
harder  road,  and  call  upon  you  literally  to  sacrifice 
and  give  up  that  which  is  your  own.  In  some 
measure  this  degree  of  sacrifice  is  required  of  all,  who 
have  anything  that  they  can  call  their  own.  All 
property  needs  the  initiatory  sacrifice  of  the  clear 
gift  of  a  part  to  God  and  to  the  purposes  of  love, 
if  the  rest  is  to  be  filled  in  energetic  labour, 
and  in  helpful  use  with  the  spirit  that  consecrates 
possession. 

You,  and  all  that  you  have,  are  His,  Who  owns  you, 


212  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

in  right  of  His  creation.  He  will  not  possess  you 
except  by  your  own  gift  of  yourself  And  the  object 
of  this  gift  is  that  you  may  be  filled  by  the  Spirit, 
Which  will  use  you  for  the  fulfilment  of  the  purposes 
of  the  Eternal  Love. 


a 


XIL 
''GIVE    ME   MY   PRICE." 

Value  has  been  said  to  be  the  central  conception  of 
Political  Economy.      This  practically  means  vaiue,  the 
that  Political  Economy  regards  commodities  Sccon"' 

ception,  is 

primarily,  not  as  things  produced,  or  as  things  determined 
distributed,  but  as  things  exchanged.   Justice  Pffect"uai°"' 

, ,  .    ,  r»  1  11  •       demand,  and 

IS  the  virtue  oi   exchange,  and.  exchange  is  final  utility. 

°  °  What  is  the 

between  persons.  Value,  however,  seems  to  [^°J''of7hgse 
be  a  matter  of  things,  or  of  abstractions.  '^^^' 
Behind  the  things,  then,  and  the  abstract  terms,  we 
have  to  find,  between  the  persons  who  deal  with  the 
one  and  are  implicitly  denoted  by  the  other,  what  are 
the  just  relations  which  involve  and  realize  a  true 
conception  of  value. 

For  this  purpose  we  will  take  three  technical  terms 
of  the  economic  theory  of  value,  and  examine  what 
are  the  human  and  moral  facts  that  underlie  them. 
Value,  in  the  technical  sense,  belongs  to  anything,  the 


214  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

demand  for  which  has  caused  its  production  by  labour. 
The  cost  of  production  fixes  the  price,  but  the  cost  of 
production  varies  with  the  amount  demanded  and 
accordingly  produced.  Thus,  any  demand  which  is 
effectual,  that  is,  which  leads  a  man  to  be  willing  to 
pay  the  price,  helps  to  govern  the  price  which  is 
paid.  The  price  which  any  one  is  willing  to  pay  for 
any  given  commodity,  is  the  result  of  a  more  or  less 
unconscious  comparison  of  the  relative  worth  to 
himself  of  the  satisfaction  of  his  various  needs  and 
desires.  The  exact  comparative  utility  of  a  thing, 
which  fixes  the  price  at  which  a  man  will  buy  it,  is 
called  its  final  utility. 

In  the  system  of  exchange  every  one  is  concerned, 
both  in  supply  and  in  demand,  and  is  buyer  and  seller 
in  turn.  Every  one,  therefore,  has  to  be  just,  both  as 
buyer  and  as  seller.  The  question  is,  do  you  give 
what  you  ought,  price  for  commodity,  and  commodity 
for  price  ?  Price  is  the  cost  of  production.  Supply 
furnishes  the  commodity  which  meets  the  effectual 
demand.  What  ought  we  to  give  as  cost  of  pro- 
duction ?  With  what  ought  we  to  meet  the  effectual 
demand  ?  and  what  is  the  moral  bearing  of  the 
comparison  of  our  various  needs  and  of  the  idea  of 
final  utility  ? 

1.  We  may  adopt  the  language  of  Political  Economy 


"  GIVE  ME  MY  price:'  215 

SO  far  as  to  say,  that  what  we  ought  to  give  as  the 
price  of  a  commodity  is  the  cost  of  its  produc-  ^  ^^^^  ^^ 
tion.  But  we  must  give  our  own  meaning  to  p'^''^^^^^"- 
the  term,  and  see  what  is  the  cost  of  production,  the 
human  cost,  the  moral  cost.  Cost  of  production,  in 
the  sense  of  Political  Economy,  includes,  as  elements 
that  enter  into  it,  rent,^  interest,  earnings  of  manage- 
ment, and  wages  of  labour.  We  may  say  that  the  re- 
presentatives of  the  first  three  of  these  are  fairly  well 
able  to  take  care  of  themselves,  and  that  the  conscience 
of  the  buyer  has  principally  to  concern  itself  with  the 
price  paid  for  a  commodity,  in  so  far  as  it  affects  the 
wages  of  the  labour  that  has  produced  it.  If  the  de- 
mand for  cheap  goods  presses  at  all,  its  pressure  will, 
sooner  or  later,  be  most  heavily  felt  by  the  labourer. 
In  any  case,  if  we  keep  the  wages  of  labour  in  view, 
we  shall  be  considering  the  typical  case  of  pressure  on 
the  producer.  Earnings  of  management  are  only  the 
wages  of  another  kind  of  labour.  Interest  is  the  fruit 
of  past  labour.  Rent  is  in  part  the  interest  on  an 
investment,  in  part  the  wage  of  management  or 
direction ;  and  in  so  far  as  it  is  neither  of  these,  it 
can  obviously  best  afibrd  to  submit  to  pressure.  We 
shall  therefore  keep  the  variations  in  wages  which 

'  According  to  strict  economic  theory  rent  should  not  be  included, 
but  cf.  Toynbee,  "  Industr.  Rev.,"  pp.  137,  138. 


2i6  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

follow  on  variations  in  price  as  the  main  point  to  be 
considered. 

The  broad  statement  of  our  duty  in  the  matter  is 
simple  enough.  It  is  to  see  that  the  price  we  pay 
for  things  affords  fair  wages  to  those  whose  labour 
produces  them.  The  question  what  is  a  fair  wage, 
we  need  not  here  consider.  If  we  come  to  discuss  the 
matter  with  those  who  receive  the  wages,  there  are 
differences  of  opinion,  but  they  are  differences  which 
could  be  solved  in  mutual  agreement. 

The  practical  difficulty  of  doing  our  duty  is,  how- 
ever, quite  different  from  this.  It  lies  in  the  fact  that 
we  do  not  come  face  to  face  with  those  for  whose 
labour  we,  nevertheless,  help  to  fix  the  wages  or  the 
price.  Our  immediate  duty  is  to  give  the  price  to 
which  the  immediate  seller  is  entitled.  The  imme- 
diate seller  generally  sees  that  we  do  this.  But  the 
immediate  seller  is  not  equally  careful  of  the  interests 
of  those  who  stand  behind  him.  We  do  not  know 
what  falls  to  them,  and  especially  we  do  not  know 
what  wages  the  actual  workers  have  received.  I  wish 
to  press  this  point.  In  a  moral  consideration  of  prices 
it  is,  at  present,  the  main  point — we  do  not  know.  We 
do  know  that  working  men  and  women,  on  the 
average,  get  more  nearly  what  they  ought  to  than 
they  did  fifty  years  ago.     This  is  a  very  good  thing 


"  GIVE  ME  MY  PRICE r  217 

to  know,  as  far  as  it  goes;  but  it  does  not  go  far. 
When  you  are  dealing  with  millions  of  human 
beings,  an  average  may  satisfy  the  intelligence,  but 
it  will  not  satisfy  the  conscience.  And,  though  we 
know  that  the  average  workman  receives  more  than 
he  used  to  receive,  we  have  no  assurance  that  he 
receives  what  he  ought  to  receive,  what  we  and  he, 
if  we  came  face  to  face,  should  consider  to  be  his 
due.  We  do  not  know  the  average  workman  or 
the  life  he  lives.  When  we  go  into  a  shop  to  buy 
cheap  goods,  we  don't  think  about  him.  And  yet 
we  buy  him,  and  buy  him  cheap  still,  in  spite  of 
encouraging  statistics.  In  a  general  way  we  do 
know  that  there  are  many  industries  where  men 
and  women  are  overworked  and  underpaid.  But  we 
do  not  know  which  they  are.  It  is  a  plain  point  of 
private  duty  not  to  buy  of  any  dealer,  whose  supply 
we  know  to  rest  on  a  system  of  labour  underpaid  and 
oppressed.  But  the  few  cases  in  which  we  know  this 
are  nothing  to  the  mass.  We  do  know,  thank  God, 
of  dealers  and  manufacturers,  whose  business  is 
managed  on  principles  which  make  it  a  privilege  to 
deal  with  them.  But  these,  again,  are  nothing  to  the 
mass.  We  do  not  know  the  mass.  Is  there  no  duty 
to  know  ?  If  any  force  of  public  opinion  demanded 
that  we  should  know,  the  knowledge  would  be  ours. 


2i8  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

If  the  spirit  of  inquiry  into  the  matter  were  once 
roused,  light  would  be  let  in  on  the  dark  places,  where 
men  do  wrong  which  they  scarcely  acknowledge  to 
themselves,  and  make  the  mass  of  the  buying  public 
partakers  in  injustice,  if  not  against  their  will,  at  least 
without  their  knowledge. 

Are  there  any  real  reasons,  which  are  not  bad 
reasons,  why  the  essential  facts  should  not  be  known  ? 
Why  should  it  not  be  matter  of  common  knowledge 
and  notoriety,  at  the  price  of  what  rate  of  wages  we 
purchase  the  cheapness  of  our  goods,  except  that  there 
is  no  common  desire  to  know  facts,  with  whose  moral 
significance  the  common  conscience  does  not  care  to 
concern  itself  ?  And  yet,  if  we  may  know  and  do  not 
know,  we  are  partakers  in  any  injustice  that  is  done, 
and  that  not  against  our  will,  but  with  it.  No  doubt, 
with  any  amount  of  knowledge  on  the  subject  made 
available,  injustice  and  wrong  would  have  their  lurk- 
ing places  still ;  but,  at  least,  we  should  not,  in  the 
execution  of  an  obvious  social  duty,  be  faced  with  the 
impossibility,  from  blank  and  absolute  ignorance,  of 
doing  anything  else  but  neglecting  it.  Our  neglect 
would  not  rise  up  against  us  now  and  then,  with  crying 
facts  of  misery  and  degradation.  Will  it  not  rise  up 
one  day  against  every  one  of  us,  with  a  cry  which  shall 
be  in  itself  a  condemnation  ?     We  ought  to  give  the 


"  GIVE  ME  MY  price:'  219 

cost  of  production;  we  ought  to  be  able  to  see  the  lives 
which  produce  what  we  buy  at  the  nicely  calculated 
price  of,  say,  2s.  llfd ;  we  ought  to  see  the  cost — the 
cost  of  life,  the  cost  of  pain,  the  cost  of  crime.  It  is 
one  part  of  the  matter  to  get  nearer  to  the  lives  of 
those  who  work.  Then  we  can  see  what  low  wages 
mean  ;  we  can  quicken  pity  and  sympathy  into 
indignation,  and  nerve  them  into  the  resolution  that 
will  bear  fruit,  through  work  and  self-denial,  in  our 
own  lives  and  surroundings.  It  is  another  part  of  the 
matter  that  it  should  belong  to  the  credentials  of  a 
trade  that  the  wages  it  pays  should  be  known,  and 
the  conditions  under  which  its  labour  is  carried  on 
should  be  open  to  inspection  and  verification. 

We  are  no  longer  to  be  scared  by  the  fear  that  any 
rise  of  wages  will  be  followed  by  an  increase  of  popu- 
lation which  will  absorb  it.  We  know  that  education, 
and  the  advance  of  wages  themselves,  the  gain  of  self- 
respect,  and  the  subjection  to  the  better  influences  of 
morality  and  religion,  cause  a  rise  in  what  Political 
Economists  have  rather  curiously  called  the  standard 
of  comfort,  and  that  better  wages  mean  a  better  life. 
"  The  standard  of  comfort  "  is  a  phrase  that  stands  for 
a  varying  rate  of  improvement  in  the  ideal  of  the 
working  class,  as  to  the  life  with  which  they  will  be 
content.     It  might  mean,  without  any  forcing  of  the 


220  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

words,  the  ideal  of  a  tolerable  life,  which  those  who 
buy  should  be  content  to  provide  for  those  who  work. 
The  force  of  all  that  I  say  here  depends  on  the  belief, 
that  if  those  who  buy  saw  the  price  in  pain  and 
degradation  of  their  cheap  enjoyment  and  convenience, 
they  would  submit  to  inconvenience,  sacrifice  what 
had  ceased  to  be  a  joy,  and  live  lives  of  less  material 
comfort,  rather  than  purchase  ease  or  pleasure  at  the 
price  of  wrong,  and  that  man,  face  to  face  with  man, 
if  only  one  desires  that  each  shall  have  his  due,  will 
agree  on  what  is  due  when  all  is  done. 

2.  It  may  seem  as  if  we  turned  to  the  duties  of 
2.  Effectual  another  economic  class,  when  we  ask  what 
ought  to  be  supplied  to  meet  demand.  In 
fact,  as  we  have  said,  we  are  all,  in  one  way  or 
another,  sellers  as  weU  as  buyers.  Even  those  who 
live  on  the  interest  of  money  invested  have  some 
responsibility  for  the  choice  of  the  industry  from 
whose  profits  they  draw  their  income.  Either  they 
are  justly  paid  for  something,  or  they  are  unjustly 
paid  for  nothing.  No  doubt  there  is  a  great  difference, 
both  in  the  manner  and  in  the  degree  in  which  this 
duty  presses  on  difierent  classes  of  the  community. 
But  no  member  of  any  class  can  afibrd  to  be  secure 
that  his  share  of  the  duty  is  slight  and  inappreciable, 
until  he    has  considered  in  what  the   duty  consists 


"  GIVE  ME  MY  price:'  221 

of  those  who  supply  the  demand  for  any  com- 
modity. 

Political  Economy  deals  only  with  effectual  demand. 
The  distinction  between  effectual  and  ineffectual 
demand  suggests  three  different  spheres  of  obligation. 

You  are  responsible,  in  so  far  as  you  contribute  to 
the  supply  of  any  commodity,  for  seeing  that  the  buyer 
gets  what  he  asks  for  and  can  see  that  he  secures. 
Even  here,  where  interest  and  duty  coincide,  the 
operation  of  the  economic  force  is  not  always  certain, 
and  there  is  room  for  moral  motives  to  come  into 
play,  to  supplement  the  working  of  the  economic 
machinery.  Supply  aims  at  meeting  the  main  mass 
of  the  demand,  such  as  it  is.  But  demand  is  not  an 
indiscriminate  mass,  it  is  not  all  equally  intelligent,  or 
equally  blind ;  and  dealers  often  succeed  in  lowering 
themselves  to  the  level  of  a  stupid  and  undiscerning 
machine,  by  declining  to  take  into  account  any  indi- 
vidual variations  from  the  average  and  uninstructed 
demand.  This  tendency  is  not  only  stupid  and 
mechanical,  it  is  wrong.  It  demoralizes,  because  it 
dehumanizes  industry  and  trade ;  it  deprives  it  of 
its  character  as  an  intercourse  between  the  members 
of  a  community  of  moral  and  spiritual  beings ;  it 
degrades  all  those  who  play  any  part  in  a  system 
which  declines  to  rise  to  the  human  level.     It  is  our 


222  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

duty,  in  suppljdng  demand,  to  be  keen  to  discern 
what  it  is  best  to  demand  and  to  supply ;  to  be  open 
to  see  distinctions  between  intelligent  need  and  blind 
and  habitual  fashion,  to  learn  from  the  one,  and  to 
educate  the  other. 

But  demand,  which  is  supposed  to  be  effectual, 
often  asks  for  what  it  cannot  see  that  it  secures. 
Here  there  is  a  wide  range  for  the  working  of  con- 
science. The  division  of  labour  has  been  so  rapid, 
and  has  become  so  multitudinous,  that  scarcely  any 
individual,  however  well-informed,  can  understand  the 
processes,  or  judge  the  results  of  the  industries  of 
whose  products  he  makes  use.  A  man  may  know 
very  well  what  he  wants,  and  yet  not  know  how  to 
see  that  he  gets  it.  If  we  leave  out  of  account  all 
tricks  of  the  trade,  all  devices  for  seeming  to  give 
what  we  do  not  give,  and  deceiving  the  eye  of  the 
ordinary  man — devices  of  whose  dishonesty  there  can 
be  no  question — there  remains,  in  the  supply  of  a 
demand  which  is  supposed  to  be  effectual,  a  wide 
difference  between  conscientious  and  unconscientious 
trade.  Suppose  a  dealer  to  have  got  past  the  point, 
at  which  he  can  bribe  his  conscience  with  the  neces- 
sity of  doing  what  others  do,  as  though  thieving  and 
murder  went  by  fashion;  he  may  still,  avoiding 
obvious   dishonesty,   fall  far   short   of  the   standard 


"  GIVE  ME  MY  PRICE.''  223 

which  we  expect  to  be  attained  by  the  man  whom 
we  call  a  good  and  trustworthy  tradesman.  We  call 
a  man  trustworthy  who  knows  what  we  want  of  him 
as  well  as  we  do,  but  who,  knowing  how  to  give  it, 
and  whether  he  gives  it  or  not,  a  great  deal  better 
than  we  do,  does  give  it,  and  acts  as  what  he  is, 
trustee  for  his  customers.  Industrial  organization 
has  become  too  complex  for  it  to  be  possible  for  a 
customer  to  know  for  himself,  in  every  instance,  that 
he  is  getting  what  he  wants,  what  he  says  he  wants, 
what  he  is  known  to  want.  Either  the  man  who 
supplies  it  must  see  that  he  gets  it,  or — what  is  the 
alternative  ?  The  alternative  is,  that  we  fall,  more 
or  less  insensibly,  into  the  condition,  in  which  we 
cheat  each  other,  with  no  better  excuse  than  that  we 
know  we  cheat  each  other,  and  acquiesce  in  it.  We 
"  not  only  do  such  things,  but  take  pleasure  in  them 
that  do  them."  The  currency  of  morals  is  debased. 
No  one  is  supposed  to  do  really  and  thoroughly 
what  he  says  he  does,  to  make,  to  the  best  of  his 
ability,  what  he  professes  to  make.  It  is  taken  for 
granted  that  we  take  each  other  in  to  a  moderate  and 
decent  degree.  Excellence,  and  the  very  idea  of  an 
aim  at  perfection,  tend  to  disappear  and  die  away. 
Our  standard  is  not  what  is  just — not  what  I  who 
sell,  or  you  who  buy,  think  to  be  just,  but  what  I 


224  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

who  sell  can  decently  pretend  to  be  just ;  while  you 
who  buy  laugh  in  your  sleeve,  and  contentedly  pay 
a  price,  which  you  know  to  be  lower  than  that  which 
would  purchase  sound  and  good  ware,  because,  though 
it  exceeds  the  value  of  the  poor  and  second-rate 
production  you  receive,  it  does  not  exceed  it  by 
more  than,  in  the  present  state  of  morals,  you  must 
reasonably  expect.  Effectual  demand  is  an  imaginary 
thing.  There  is  a  wide  borderland  between  demand 
that  is  really  effectual  to  secure  what  it  demands,  and 
demand  that  is  ineffectual  altogether. 

And  what  of  this — the  ineffectual  demand  ?  If  we 
could  picture  it,  if  we  could  envisage  it  in  any  pre- 
sentation of  facts,  and  they  need  not  be  imagined, 
what  a  satire  it  would  be  on  the  working  of  the 
perfect  economic  machine !  There  rises,  indeed,  from 
either  side  in  the  great  exchange,  from  buyer  and 
seller  alike,  an  ineffectual  cry  for  help  that  is  not 
given,  for  hope  that  is  not  to  be  fulfilled.  If  it  could 
be  fulfilled  !  If  most  men  would  strive,  as  some  men 
do,  to  give  their  fellow-men  their  price,  life  for  life, 
to  take  the  life  that  is  given  them,  such  as  it  is,  and, 
grateful  for  its  joy  and  its  blessing,  to  render  back 
their  best — the  best  service  that  they  can  give  by 
their  own  work  and  trade — to  the  lives  of  others, 
what   quickening  would   there  be  of  the  lives   and 


"  GIVE  ME  MY  PRICED  225 

energies  of  all,  as  they  felt  exchange  to  become  a 
living  transaction,  a  spiritual  privilege  !  We  want 
we  know  not  what.  As  in  prayer  to  God  we  stretch 
out  the  hands  of  a  blind  and  speechless  supplication 
for  gifts  and  blessings  beyond  the  wishes  we  can  frame 
in  words,  so  the  unspoken  prayer  goes  out  to  our 
fellow-men ;  only  there  is  no  hearing  ear,  no  wisdom 
to  construe,  no  heart  to  satisfy  our  need.  There  is 
an  ineffectual  demand,  vocal  enough  to  be  effectual, 
if  we  would  listen  and  would  answer,  for  truth  and 
soundness  and  solidity,  for  vigour  and  grace  and 
beauty,  for  useful  and  trustworthy  help  in  work 
and  in  its  product.  To  make  this  demand  effectual, 
the  motive  of  self-interest  will  never  avail.  There  is 
an  appeal,  as  of  one  blind  and  dumb,  from  those  who 
know  not  to  those  who  know,  to  which  charity  and 
justice  alone  can  give  the  answer — justice  whi(ii  acts 
without  regard  of  consequence,  and  charity  that  loves 
to  give  without  reward. 

But  here  we  pass  into  another  region.  The  view 
which  we  have  taken  of  the  human  cost  of  production, 
of  the  delusion  of  effectual,  and  the  pathos  of  in- 
effectual demand,  leads  to  a  different  way  of  looking 
at  what  we  see  to  be  the  exchange  of  life  for  life. 

3.  Your  demand,  say  the  Political  Economists, 
the  demand  which  you  succeed  in  making  effectual, 

Q 


226  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

which  helps  to  determine  the  cost  of  production,  by 
^  affecting  the  amount  which,  at  any  given 
utility.  ^Qg^^  ^'^  l^g  demanded,  is  itself  the  result  of 
a  kind  of  unconscious  competition  in  your  own  life 
between  different  objects  of  desire.  The  price  you 
will  give  measures  the  exact  comparative  utility, 
the  final  utility  of  the  thing  you  buy  to  you. 
There  they  stand  over  against  you,  the  human  souls 
and  bodies  that  toil  and  suffer  to  produce  for  you. 
To  which  will  you  beckon  ?  Whose  product  will  you 
choose?  Which  will  you  count  worthy  of  the 
sacrifice  of  the  rest?  Which  is  the  thing  that  has 
final  utility  for  you  ?  Final  utility  !  The  words  have 
an  ominous  ring.  As  you  weigh  your  pleasures  and 
conveniences  one  against  another,  you  are  dealing 
with  the  produce  of  human  life  and  toil  and  pain. 
Weigh  it  well,  and  think  whether,  in  this  conflict 
between  various  desires,  there  be  no  room  for  a  desire 
to  see  those  who  serve  you,  for  this  pleasure  or  for 
that,  themselves  in  the  enjoyment  of  some  pleasure  in 
their  life. 

In  the  final  choice,  even  now,  is  not  this  worth 
weighing  and  taking  into  account — I  do  not  say 
whether  your  ease  is  purchased  at  the  cost  of  some 
perfection  in  the  work  by  which  you  pay  for  what 
you  get,  but  whether  your  variety  of  comforts  is  not 


•*  GIVE  ME  MY  price:'  227 

bought  by  paying  for  each  at  such  a  price  as  gives  no 
comfort  to  those  who  furnish  them  ?  May  you  not 
be  demanding,  at  the  one  end,  a  payment  for  your 
work  in  wages  and  in  ease,  such  as  to  enable  you,  at 
the  other  end,  to  keep  up  a  lively  competition  between 
the  trades  which  minister  to  your  ease,  and  in  whose 
products  you  take  out  your  payment  ?  You  are 
measuring,  in  fact,  not  merely  as  it  seems  to  you,  the 
comparative  worth  to  yourself  of  this  or  that  gratifi- 
cation or  advantage,  but  the  comparative  and  final 
utility  of  yourself,  and  your  own  life,  and  your  com- 
plete enjoyment,  as  against  the  selves  and  lives  of  those 
on  whose  labour  you  live.  The  mass  of  the  demands 
and  desires  which  you  are  matching  one  against 
another,  to  see  which  you  can  afford  to  gratify,  make 
up  the  price  which  you  demand  for  yourself  The 
subdi^'ision  in  the  mass,  in  the  allotment  of  reward 
for  the  supply  of  one  element  after  another  of  your 
comfort  and  enjoyment,  marks  your  answer  to  the 
demand  which  meets  you  from  soul  after  soul  that 
labours  and  suffers  for  you — "Give  me  my  price." 
And  one  after  another  may  add,  as  he  goes  down  to 
death,  "  A  goodly  price,  that  I  was  prized  at  of  them/* 


XIII. 
THE   CONSUMPTION   OF  WEALTH. 

Political   Economists   draw   a  distinction    between 
_     .         productive  and  unproductive  labour  which, 

The  distinc-     ^  ■"■ 

productil^r"  ^'^   stated  with   some   unnecessary  paradox, 
ductive         has  given  rise  to  a  good   deal   of  fruitless 

labour  -~ 


tion  concern 
ing  con- 
sumption. 


better  stated  controvcrsv.  The  true  upshot  of  the  con- 
as  a  distinc-  "^  ^ 

tention  of  the  Economists  may  perhaps  be 

stated  in  the  form   of  the  proposition  that 

luxury  is  not  good  for  trade.     In  any  case,  for  the 

purpose  of  economic   morals   the   distinction  can  be 

best   expressed  as  a  distinction   between  productive 

and  unproductive  consumption. 

Consumption  is  at  once  the  end  and  the  beginning 

Consump-  of  a  cvclc  of  ccouomic  events.  Consump- 
tion IS  the  "^  '■ 

andJKd  tion  is  the  end  of  production,  exchange, 
o  economic  ^^^  dlstributiou :  everything  is  produced 
in  order  that  it  may  be  consumed,  is  exchanged  in 
order   that   it   may   be   consumed,   is  distributed   in 


THE   CONSUMPTION  OF  WEALTH.  229 

order  that  it  may  be  consumed.  The  whole  process 
ends  in  the  consumer.  And  the  consumer,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  the  beginning  of  the  process.  He  is 
able  to  produce  because  he  has  consumed.  His 
production  is  the  use  which  is  served  by  his 
consumption,  its  issue  and  effect.  We  have  to 
consider  what  ought  to  be  the  efi'ects  of  the  con^ 
sumption  of  wealth. 

We  have  observed  that  competition  between  our 
own  desires,  between  the  diflerent  products  which 
feed  and  minister  to  a  well-provided  life,  tends  to 
force  down  the  standard  of  comfort  of  the  various 
industries  which  have  each  to  produce  at  the  lowest 
possible  price,  in  order  to  enable  their  own  product 
to    stand    its    chance.     This    consideration  what  is  the 

moral  rank, 

belongs   to   the   morals   of  exchanore.      The  with  respect 

o  o  to  their  re- 

main  duty,   however,    of  the   consumer,   as  ferent  kinds 

ofconsump- 

consumer,  is   to   rate   the  respective  values  tion? 
of  the  different  ways  of  consuming  wealth,  not  with 
a  view  to  the  conditions  precedent  to  their  supply, 
but  with  a  view  to  the  consequences  of  the  different 
forms  of  consumption  themselves. 

There  are  three  obvious  forms  of  motive  to  con- 
sumption. We  may  consume  wealth  on  ourselves, 
we  may  consume  it  in  further  production,  or  we  may 
consume    it    in    help    or    pleasure    to    others.      We 


230  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

have  to  estimate  the  moral  value  of  each  of  these 
three. 

We  must  first  consider  their  relation  to  one  another. 
What  a  man  consumes  for  the  satisfaction  of  his  own 
desires  may  still  be  so  consumed  as  to  forward 
production  and  to  help  others.  In  any  life  a  certain 
minimum  of  provision  for  self  is  needed  to  maintain 
the  man  in  efiiciency  as  a  productive  machine,  or 
as  an  organ  of  help.  Again,  things  consumed  in 
assisting  further  production  are  so  consumed,  in 
great  part,  for  the  personal  gain  of  the  man  who 
devotes  them  to  this  purpose.  His  motive  may  be 
to  enrich  the  provision  for  his  own  life,  or  for  that 
of  his  family;  or  the  personal  motive  may  take 
another  shape,  namely,  the  gratification  and  pleasure 
felt  in  the  energy  of  production  itself  And  the  use 
of  wealth  in  production  generally  serves  a  helpful 
purpose,  and  may  be  dictated  by  a  helpful  spirit. 
Lastly,  wealth  devoted  to  the  express  purpose  of 
the  help  of  others  will  help  production,  in  so  far  as 
it  helps  producers,  and  will  minister  a  high  kind  of 
personal  pleasure  to  him  who  must  still  be  considered 
as  primarily  and  by  initiative  the  consumer. 

These  considerations  will  suggest  the  special  lines 
of  duty  in  each  kind  of  consumption.  We  shall  take 
the  different  kinds  in  the  inverse  order  to  that  in 
which  we  have  mentioned  them. 


THE   CONSUMPTION  OF  WEALTH.  231 

1.  It  is  plain  that  the  duty  of  help  is  the  dominant 
motive  of  the  three.     The  moral  purpose  of     ^ 

■^        ^  1.  Consump- 

the  whole  economic  system  is  mutual  help,  Sthin 
and  the  moral  end  of  the  life  of  the 
individual  man  is  to  live  for  the  good  of  others. 
But,  apart  from  the  influence  of  the  law  of  help 
on  the  production  he  assists,  and  on  his  individual 
expenditure,  every  man  is  plainly  bound  to  devote 
a  certain  amount  of  wealth  to  the  direct  purposes 
of  help.  This  is,  perhaps,  an  easy  thing  to  do,  but 
it  is  not  an  easy  thing  to  do  well.  Help  to  the 
helpless  is  simple  and  straightforward  enough — to 
those  who  are  helpless  from  the  weakness  of  infancy 
or  age,  or  from  disease,  or  from  misfortune.  But, 
until  we  arrive  at  the  impossible  ideal  of  a  perfectly 
working  economic  life,  there  will  always  be  number- 
less cases  calling  for  help  by  need,  and  yet  in  which 
the  wrong  kind  or  degree  of  help  will  only  foster 
helplessness  as  a  disease.  Often  men  come,  for  a 
time  at  least,  to  a  helpless  condition  from  a  shifting 
of  the  centre,  or  the  market,  of  an  industry,  or  from 
some  cause  in  which  they  are  not  to  blame ;  often 
from  intemperance,  or  idleness,  or  vice  in  themselves, 
or  in  some  member  of  their  family;  often  from  a 
complication  of  moral  and  economic  causes,  since 
the    effect   of    the   latter    is   soonest    felt    by   those 


232  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

who  have  some  moral  or  physical  disqualification. 
And  it  is  in  this  great  variety  of  cases,  certain  to 
be  always  arising,  certain  to  exist — if  we  don't  see 
them,  they  exist  unseen — in  which  it  is  difficult  really 
to  help.  The  immediate  need  may,  and  must  be 
relieved.  But  Political  Economists  have  rightly 
suggested  the  caution,  though  the  caution  has  often, 
unfortunately,  stood  as  a  substantive  principle  and 
acted  as  an  excuse  for  indifference,  that  to  let  people 
live  on  help  is  to  teach  them  to  be  helpless.  The 
difficulty  is  one  to  be  met  in  detail.  It  cannot  be 
sponged  out  by  any  general  statement;  it  is  only 
shirked  by  reckless  abstention  from  almsgiving,  or  by 
a  reckless  resort  to  it.  But  two  principles  suggest 
themselves  as  guides,  where  the  obligation  is  once 
seen  or  felt  to  help  in  some  way. 

This  obligation  must  stand  first.  It  is  perfectly 
certain  that  there  are  individual  cases  of  want, 
resulting  from  inevitable  causes  or  from  vice,  in  the 
reach  of  every  one  of  us.  The  range  of  every  single 
individual  includes  cases  enough  to  employ  to  the  full 
his  help-giving  power.  The  help  which  he  does  not 
give  is  not  given.  There  is  a  gap  left  in  the  moral 
provision  for  the  needs  of  man.  No  one  can  fill  your 
place.     He  has  enough  to  do  to  fill  his  own. 

But  when  the  main  obligation  is  recognized,  to  find 


THE   CONSUMPTION  OF  WEALTH.  233 

out  who  there  is  within  our  reach  whom  we  can  help 
— and  modern  means  of  communication  give  charity 
a  very  long  arm — to  pass  by  no  opportunity  for  help 
where  help  can  be  given,  there  remain  two  considera- 
tions by  which  to  be  guided.  First,  the  truth  which 
underlies  the  caution  of  the  economists.  The  man 
whom  you  help  has  got  to  be  himself  a  help-giving 
and  a  producing  animal.  Unless  you  help  him  to 
this,  your  help  is  not  worth  much.  If  you  merely 
give  a  selfish  satisfaction  to  your  own  feeling  of  com- 
passion, you  give  an  anodyne  to  conscience,  but  you 
do  not  obey  its  behests.  You  have  helped  the  "man 
as  little  as  you  could,  to  help  him  at  all,  and  you  may 
have  given  him,  with  your  help,  evil  which  will  more 
than  outweigh  it  in  value.  The  mere  giving  of 
money  to  those  who  ask  for  it  is  help  of  this  kind. 
It  has  helped  to  create  a  class  of  professional  impos- 
tors, who  practise  as  a  trade  the  appeal  to  sensi- 
bilities which  are  too  delicate  to  enable  us  to  pass 
by  pain,  but  not  too  delicate  to  enable  us  to  feed  and 
foster  the  vice  which  multiplies  pain  a  thousandfold. 
You  have  got  to  give  help  of  such  a  kind,  and  in  such 
a  way  as  will  put  the  man  you  help  in  the  way  of 
himself  becoming  helpful,  a  useful  and  productive 
member  of  society.  There  are  associations  formed  all 
over  the  country  for  carrying  on  the  work  of  this 


234  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

discriminating  charity,  which  helps  by  giving  work, 
or  by  sending  men  where  they  may  get  work.  These 
associations  are  often  blamed  for  the  mechanical  and 
imperfect  way  in  which  they  do  their  work.  Let  us 
first  see  that  their  work  is  the  work  that  needs  to  be 
done,  and  then  our  second  guiding  principle  will  show 
how  we  ourselves  can  help  to  remedy  its  defects. 

The  obvious  defect  of  a  society  or  an  organization 
in  the  work  of  charity  is  that  it  wants  personality. 
Is  not  this  partly  because  it  wants  persons  ?  An 
overworked  and  insufficiently  manned  organization 
is  sure  to  become  mechanical  in  its  action.  The 
organization  is  nowhere  adequate  in  size  or  'personnel 
to  the  work  it  has  to  do  in  any  district.  Reinforce- 
ments of  workers  are  wanted  to  make  the  machine  more 
complete,  and  to  convert  it  into  a  living  organism 
instinct  with  the  spirit  of  a  full  and  vigorous  life, 
of  an  individual  sympathy  which  need  not  be  less 
tender  or  less  real,  because  it  operates  with  the 
conscious  power  of  a  corporate  existence.  Personal 
help  is  needed  in  another  way.  Personal  help  must 
be  always  at  work,  to  feed  and  supplement  the  action 
of  these  societies  and  organizations,  local  or  general. 
Your  help,  even  if  you  help  through  a  society,  should 
be  your  own.  Your  own  sympathy,  as  well  as  your 
own  self-denial,  should  find  vent  in  it.     You  yourself 


THE   CONSUMPTION  OF  WEALTH.  235 

should  enjoy  in  it  the  personal  privilege  and  the 
personal  pleasure  of  help.  Your  support  of  any  insti- 
tution for  help  should  be  stimulated  by  some  personal 
contact  with  those  who  need,  and  your  personal  work 
should  not  be  missed,  in  the  absence  of  your  contribu- 
tion to  the  corporate  work  of  knowledge  which  you 
alone  can  give,  and  of  the  living  sympathy  which 
helps  to  inform  the  organization  with  its  true  and 
spiritual  life. 

Help,  then,  should  be  help,  not  to  the  passing 
need  only  which  excites  your  pity,  but  to  the  man 
who  needs — needs  to  be  made  himself  a  productive 
and  a  helpful  man.  And  it  should  be  personal,  giving 
to  you  the  personal  pleasure  of  charity,  the  employ- 
ment of  your  own  spiritual  faculty  of  mercy  and 
kindness,  the  use  of  the  opportunities  which  you,  and 
you  alone,  can  use. 

2.  The  teaching  of  the  Political  Economists  has 
favoured  the  consumption  of  wealth  in  assist- 

*■  1.  Consump- 

ing  further  production.     This  tendency  of  the  ^°"i°h  in 

11  .  ,  ,  1  .  production. 

science  has  been,  m  part,  a  natural  outcome 
of  the  philosophy  with  which  it  was  commonly  asso- 
ciated, a  philosophy  which  was  apt  to  lose  sight  of 
the  reality  of  things  and  persons,  in  the  analysis  of 
the  relations  by  which  they  were  constituted,  to  let 
history  not  merely  contribute  to,  but  supplant  defini- 


236  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

tion,  and  which  was  accordingly  content  to  view  the 
economic  system  of  human  life  as  a  system  of  means 
without  any  end.  If  we  attempt  to  follow  this 
tendency  in  our  view  of  economic  life,  we  feel  as  if 
we  were  gradually  getting  lost  amidst  the  whirling 
wheels  of  some  vast  and  complicated  piece  of 
machinery,  started  we  know  not  why,  working  we 
know  not  for  what  end,  subordinating  the  spiritual 
energy  and  interest  of  life  to  a  blind  and  all-absorbing 
mechanical  routine.  Wealth  is  to  be  devoted  to  pro- 
duction, and  the  wealth  so  produced  to  production 
again,  and  so  on  for  ever  and  for  ever,  in  an  endless, 
weary  round.  If  this  is  all,  we  feel  inclined  to  ask, 
why  produce  at  all  ?  Who  is  the  gainer  by  the  whole 
proceeding  ?  That  there  is  a  truth  whose  perception 
prompts  this  rebellion,  is  implied  in  the  view  of 
economic  life  and  of  consumption  which  we  have 
taken.  Production  is  an  end  in  itself,  not  as  produc- 
tion, but  as  an  essential  feature  in  a  system  of  mutual 
help.  The  spirit  of  mutual  help,  or  of  love,  is  the  end 
in  itself  of  human  life,  economic  or  otherwise.  In 
so  far,  therefore,  as  these  two  can  be  considered  as 
separate  from  one  another,  production  and  help, 
production  is  subordinate  to  help.  And  it  is  quite 
possible  to  lose  sight  of  this  subordination,  to  pursue 
production  as  though  it  were  an  end  in  itself,  and  not 


THE   CONSUMPTION  OF  WEALTH.  237 

to  consider  whether  its  purpose  may  not  be  best 
answered  by  what  does  not  seem  to  forward  its 
progress.  There  are  uses  of  wealth,  both  for  the  help 
of  need  and  for  the  satisfaction  of  personal  desires, 
which,  while  they  seem  to  rob  production  of  resources, 
do  really  and  finally  aid,  more  than  any  direct  pro- 
duction, the  production  of  that  which  is  best  worth 
producing,  the  mutual  help  which  all  production  is 
intended  to  forward  and  secure. 

But  it  remains  true,  nevertheless,  that  production, 
as  an  end,  plays  its  part  in  all  the  uses  of  wealth,  and 
that  a  directly  productive  purpose  should  assign  its 
destination  to  some  considerable  proportion  of  any 
resources  that  a  man  has  at  his  command.  The  safe- 
guards, against  an  abuse  of  the  recognition  of  this 
productive  purpose,  are  the  acknowledgment  that 
beyond  production  there  is  always  the  final  purpose  of 
help,  and  that,  accordingly,  the  aim  of  maintaining  pro- 
duction must  not  be  allowed  to  defeat  in  detail  that 
which  is  its  general  end ;  and,  beyond  this,  the  percep- 
tion that  the  production  which  any  man  forwards, 
is  a  part  of  the  life  in  which  he  has  to  live  out  his 
own  soul  and  realize  his  own  desires.  No  man  must 
allow  himself  to  be  degraded  into  a  mere  productive 
machine ;  no  man  must  be  driven  into  actions  which 
his   better  nature    disavows,   or    drawn   away  from 


238  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

the  fulfilment  of  desires  which  his  better  nature 
prompts,  by  the  supposed  necessity  of  increasing 
or  maintaining  a  certain  rate  of  production.  The 
whole  nature,  the  self  whose  desires  are  the  motive 
power  of  life,  sets  to  the  processes  of  production 
a  limit  and  a  standard.  They  must  rise  to  the 
standard  and  observe  the  limit  which  are  involved 
in  this  moral  necessity,  that  the  productive  machinery, 
which  is  moved  or  aided  by  the  will,  should  take 
its  place  as  part  of  the  life  of  an  eternal  being 
with  eternal  ends.  The  individual  will  and  mind, 
the  individual  presence  and  sympathy  should  make 
itself  felt,  so  far  as  may  be,  throughout  the  range  of 
the  industry  it  feeds,  and  the  character  and  extent 
of  the  industry  should  be  such  as  to  make  this  a 
possibility. 

3.  Lastly,  we  have  to  consider  that  kind  of  con- 
3.  Consump-  sumptiou  of  Wealth  to  which  the  term  con- 

tion  of 

tITsSisfac-  sumption  properly  belongs — the  use  of  it  to 
sonai  desires.  Satisfy  the  pcrsonal  desires  of  a  man.  Pro- 
duction has  its  end  in  consumption  to  meet  individual 
needs.  Help  is  help  to  individual  lives.  In  being 
consumed,  wealth  loses  itself  in  the  personality  whose 
life  it  feeds,  to  emerge  again  in  productive  and  helpful 
activities.  Here  is  the  end,  the  existence  of  lives 
which   labour  in   production   for  helpful    ends — the 


THE   CONSUMPTION  OF  WEALTH.  239 

laborious  life  lived  in  love  and  help  for  other  men. 
In  the  support  of  this,  wealth  finds  its  true  destina- 
tion. And  it  is  here  that  the  distinction  comes  in 
between  productive  and  unproductive,  helpful  and 
unhelpful  consumption.  The  test  by  which  every 
man  has  to  try  his  own  consumption  of  wealth  is 
the  question,  whether  it  makes  him  a  more  useful, 
a  more  helpful  person.  There  are  many  ways  of 
consuming  wealth  that  we  should  be  sorry  to  see 
banished  from  the  world,  which  this  principle  seems 
to  condemn.  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  set  aside  the 
idea  that  brain  labourers  are  less  productive  con- 
sumers than  hand  labourers,  or  that  lawyers  or 
schoolmasters  or  clergymen  do  not  reproduce,  if  they 
do  their  work  rightly,  in  visible  and  tangible  results^ 
the  worth  of  what  they  consume.  Perhaps  the  arts 
which  minister  to  the  beauty  and  the  grace  of  life 
are  in  more  danger  from  a  superficial  misapplication 
of  the  principle.  We  must  take  life  in  its  highest 
and  fullest  meaning,  as  that  which  consumption  has 
to  feed.  Life  includes  enjoyment  and  leisure,  as  well 
as  work.  Work,  with  no  intervals  but  those  of 
torpor,  is  not  life.  Joy  is  a  part  of  the  very  meaning 
of  life.  And  yet  it  will  remain  a  severe  test  by 
which  to  try  our  expenditure  upon  our  personal 
pleasures,  to  set  against  the  services  they  enable  us 


240  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

to  render  with  a  brighter  mind  and  a  more  vigorous 
will,  the  good  which  might  otherwise  have  been  done 
by  a  different  use  of  the  same  resources.  There  is 
such  a  thing  as  waste  of  wealth,  and  worse  than 
waste.  If  that  which  has  cost  labour  is  wantonly 
destroyed,  it  is  wasted.  If  it  is  absorbed  in  the 
joyless  pleasures  of  those  who  are  weary  of  pleasure, 
if  it  is  spent  on  enjoyments  that  do  not  quicken  or 
gladden  soul  and  body  for  their  work,  that  contract 
the  heart  and  deaden  the  sympathies,  it  is  wasted. 
Even  here  it  is  more  than  wasted,  but  where  it  is 
spent  on  sensual  indulgence,  on  senseless  dissipation, 
and  on  vice,  it  produces  indeed,  for  it  ministers  to 
death  and  generates  corruption — corruption  which  is 
the  slow  process  of  a  living  death  in  the  will  whose 
powers  fail,  in  the  mind  whose  judgment  darkens, 
in  the  heart,  whose  light  is  quenched  by  the  mere 
selfishness  of  sin — death  in  all  the  ghastl}^  horror 
that  overruns  what  was  destined  to  be  beautiful  and 
strong,  in  those  who  are  the  victims  of  luxury  and 
sin.  Luxury  as  well  as  sin  has  its  victims — lives, 
souls,  and  bodies  devoured  by  the  mere  selfish  appetite, 
which  gluts  itself  with  pleasures  which  it  cannot 
enjoy,  and  degrades  to  this  vile  use  those  who,  in 
being  thus  abused,  are  robbed  of  any  human  dignity, 
shut  out  from    any   spiritual   fellowship  with  those 


THE   CONSUMPTION  OF   WEALTH.  241 

whose  lives  they  ought  to  serve,  whose  moral  death 
they  do  but  disguise  with  semblances  of  joy,  and 
stamp  with  the  condemnation  of  men  who  have  made 
men  the  ministers  of  sin. 

Wealth  should  be  consumed,  and  be  consumed  in 
joy.  Life,  laborious  and  self-denying  life,  should  be 
graced  with  beauty  and  filled  with  many  pleasures. 
The  highest  is  the  pleasure  of  helpful  life  itself,  the 
pleasure  of  love.  This  can  live  even  where  the  others 
are  denied.  It  can  live  a  keener  life  for  their  denial, 
as  good  can  triumph  over  evil.  But  even  in  so  living, 
it  will  instinctively  clothe  itself  with  the  lesser 
pleasures  which  beset  the  path  of  purity  and  crowd 
upon  the  heart  of  love.  It  will  not  scorn  the  beauty 
of  the  home  in  which  God  has  set  it  to  work,  the 
marriage  feast,  or  the  lilies  of  the  field,  or  the  flowers 
in  the  garden  of  the  risen  life. 


ITITI7BRSirrl 


XIV. 
COMPETITION  AND  CO-OPERATION. 

«  Called  to  be  saints."— 1  Cor.  i.  2. 

People  often  treat  the  religious  or  Christian  view  of 
life,  or  of  any  practical  question,  as  though 
of  theTalndy  ^^  Were,  not  from  the  fault  of  the  religious 
person,  but  necessarily  and  in  itself  a  partial 
and  one-sided  view.  There  is  the  medical,  and  the 
legal,  and  the  scientific,  and  the  political,  and  the 
economic  point  of  view;  and  there  is  also  the  religious 
pqint  of  view.  Each  of  them  is  partial  and  abstract, 
that  is  to  say,  from  each  you  look  at  a  part  of  life, 
or  at  one  aspect  only  of  the  whole.  The  religious 
point  of  view  may  be  the  most  important,  but  it  is 
only  one  ;  and  to  decide  a  practical  question  from  the 
religious  point  of  view  only,  is  like  deciding  whether 
Scotland  is  a  good  country  to  live  in  from  observation 
of  a  single  county,  or  from  a  study  of  one  depart- 
ment of  its  life — its  agriculture,  for  instance,  or  its 
local  STovernment. 


COMPETITION  AND   CO-OPERATION.  243 

The  ideal  of  saintliness  brings  before  us  a  different 
view  of  the  relation  of  religion  to  the  various  depart- 
ments of  life,  namely,  that  it  is  supreme — supreme, 
not  by  excluding  them  all  and  claiming  the  whole 
field  for  itself,  but  by  including  them  within  the 
range  of  its  own  commanding  principles.  As  Philo- 
sophy among  the  sciences  is  the  mistress  and  servant 
of  all,  the  source  of  their  principles,  the  recipient  of 
their  conclusions,  weaving  them  all  into  the  tissue  of 
the  world's  thought,  in  which,  generation  after  gene- 
ration, the  feeling  and  experience  of  men  takes 
substantial  spiritual  shape,  so  is  Religion  among  the 
departments  of  practice  and  of  life.  The  religious 
motive  is  the  only  supreme  motive,  co-ordinating  all 
the  rest,  explaining  their  force  and  their  variety, 
solving  their  contradictions,  fusing  them  into  a  har- 
monious whole  of  perfect  life. 

And  this  has  a  bearing  on  the  relation  of  Chris- 
tianity to  one  class  of  questions,  especially  on  what 
may  be  called,  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  term,  social 
questions — questions,  i.e.,  which  concern  man's  life  as 
a  member  of  society.  It  is  not  merely  that  the  Chris- 
tian religion  took  shape  in  a  society — a  Church,  and 
that  the  principles  laid  down  in  the  Bible  about 
that  spiritual  society  apply,  with  necessary  modifica- 
tions, to  any  society ;  it  is  not  merely  that  the  ideal 


244  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

Catholic  Churcli  is  a  model  society,  in  which  we 
may  learn  the  principles  of  social  life  for  societies 
which  have  not  the  same  directly  spiritual  purpose. 
There  is  more  than  this.  The  individual  Christian 
and  Churchman  is  the  subject  of  social  duties,  and  if 
Christ  be  in  him  of  a  truth,  religion  will  pervade  and 
govern  all  his  social  life,  and  determine  what  his 
social  duties  are^  and  in  what  way  they  are  to  be 
done.  So  that  if — as  I  am  assuming,  and  as  S.  Paul 
states  generall}'  when  he  speaks  of  the  Corinthians 
or  Romans  as  called  to  be  saints— saintliness  is  a 
thing  of  ovbT  daily  lives,  and  these  daily  lives  include 
social  duties,  there  is,  so  to  speak,  a  social  aspect  of 
saintliness  for  us  to  study.  And  if  among  these  social 
duties  there  are,  to  take  a  narrower  range,  what  we 
call  economic  duties,  then  there  is  an  economic  side 
to  the  saintly  character.  Christ  comes  to  live  and 
energize  in  the  soul  of  every  Christian,  and  to  show, 
to  manifest  Himself  in  their  fulfilment  of  the  duties 
of  their  lives.  I  am  speaking  to  those  who  have  their 
share  in  the  life  of  a  great  commercial  city.  In  this 
life,  in  our  economic  life,  how  is  the  saintly  character 
to  be  shown  ?  Do  not  think  this  is  a  paradoxical 
question.  A  man  who  is  a  merchant,  or  a  manu- 
facturer, or  a  tradesman,  or  a  mill  hand,  has  got  to  be 
a  saint  as  a  merchant,  or  a  manufacturer,  or  a  trades- 


COMPETITION  AND   CO-OPERATION.  245 

man,  or  a  mill  hand,  or  else  not  at  all.  You  are  not 
going  to  exclude  all  these  from  the  call  to  be  saints. 
You  must  ask,  then,  what  effect  does  the  call  to  be 
saints  have  on  the  principles  or  practice  of  economic 
life — a  life  in  which  we  are  all  concerned,  and  either 
do  or  neglect  our  duty,  whatever  our  profession 
may  be. 

Do  we  in  this  region  do  our  duty  ?  Even  if  we 
do,  it  will  not  be  amiss  to  review  some  of  the  prin- 
ciples on  which  we  do  it.  A  Christian's  duty  is  to 
"  walk  worthy  of  his  vocation,"  and  our  vocation  is 
to  be  saints,  and  the  most  obvious  social  feature  of 
the  saintly  character  is  love.  The  saintly  life  is  the 
life  that  is  governed  by  love — informed  by  love, 
through  the  power  of  Christ  Who  dwells  in  us.  Our 
economic  life  exhibits  two  features,  is  governed  by 
two  principles,  one  of  which  is  on  the  face  of  it  in 
harmony,  and  the  other  on  the  face  of  it  in  conflict 
with  the  Spirit  of  Love — co-operation  and  competition. 

The  system  of  our  present  economic  life  is  a  very 
wonderful  work  of  God — the  system  by  which 

•^  *'  I.  Economic 

we  men  of  every  country  and  of  every  class  systemof 

T  .1        )  1  1         T       •     •    1  co-operation. 

supply  one  another  s  needs,  and  administer 
the  resources  of  the    earth.      More  than  a  hundred 
years  ago  the  study  of  it  by  a  great  Scotchman  filled 
his  mind — and,  as  his  ideas  made  way,  the  minds  of  all 


246  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

men — with  wonder  at  the  vast  constructive  power  of  the 
motives  which  seem  to  be  at  work  in  it.  Since  Adam 
Smith's  time  commercial  life  has  grown  more  wonderful 
almost  every  day.  But  is  there  anything  in  it  more 
wonderful  than  this,  that  whatever  may  be  the  motives 
which  have  brought  it  into  being,  and  which  actuate 
every  member  of  the  system,  it  is,  as  it  stands,  a  vast 
system  of  co-operation,  a  world-wide  association  for 
mutual  help  of  man  by  man,  and  that  every  detail  in 
it  is,  to  every  member  of  it,  a  channel,  an  occasion,  an 
opportunity  of  love.  I  am  not  saying — far  from  it — 
that  it  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  entirely  pervaded  by  a 
spirit  of  good  will ;  but  I  do  say  that,  throughout,  its 
machinery  is  fitted  for  the  exercise  of  good  will,  because 
it  is,  as  it  stands,  a  system  of  mutual  help. 

It  is  sufficiently  obvious  that,  in  so  far  as  we  all 
contribute  to  a  common  stock  of  produce,  we  are 
''fellow-helpers  one  of  another,"  each  giving  aid  to 
the  rest  in  the  struggle  with  the  needs  of  life.  When 
men  work  together  they  can  always  do  more  than 
when  they  work  alone.  Fellowship  has  a  multiplying 
power.  And  what  is  familiar  to  us  under  the  name 
of  division  of  labour,  as  an  agent  in  swelling  incal- 
culably the  produce  of  human  labour,  is,  in  fact,  the 
principle  of  combination  for  the  common  end  of  in- 
creasing the  produce  of  labour,  under  one  particular 


COMPETITION  AND   CO-OPERATION  247 

aspect  of  its  working — under  the  aspect,  namely, 
of  organization — building  together  vast  multitudes 
of  individuals  into  an  economic  body,  in  which  each 
member  has  its  own  office  for  the  promotion  of  the 
life  of  the  whole.  What  is  in  this  system  the  condition 
of  the  life  of  each  individual  ?  He  lives  by  feeding 
the  lives  of  others,  by  considering  their  needs,  by 
consulting  their  interests.  He  is  dove-tailed  into  his 
place  in  a  spiritual  fellowship.  And  he  has  before 
him,  at  least  as  a  possibility,  to  view  himself  as  one 
who  lives  for  others,  and  works  for  others,  and  devotes 
his  thoughts,  his  energies,  his  life,  every  day  to  the 
service  of  his  fellows.  It  is  not  difficult  for  us  to  see, 
though  it  may  be  difficult  to  feel,  that,  as  members 
of  a  vast  society  for  joint  production,  we  are  devoted, 
consecrated  to  the  principle  of  mutual  help. 

Is  it  more  difficult  to  see  this  if  we  look  at  our 
place  in  the  economic  system  as  a  system  of  exchange  ? 
What  is  the  principle,  the  motive  of  exchange  ?  It  is 
that  each  party  is  the  gainer  by  the  process.  Exchange 
is  the  actual  communication  from  man  to  man  of  the 
fruit  and  result  of  that  multiplied  production  which 
comes  of  combination.  According  to  the  working  of 
this  principle,  each  party  in  an  exchange  is  giving  a 
benefit  to  the  other.  And  if  justice  is  the  law  of 
exchange  which  assigns  to  each  party  his  due,  the 


248  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

question  what  is  due  is  decided  by  a  reference  to  a 
common  standard  and  a  mutual  understandinof,  which 
makes  men  conscious  of  a  more  intimate  and  more 
spiritual  fellowship  than  a  common  striving  against 
need,  a  common  ministry  to  happiness  and  well-being, 
a  fellowship,  namely,  in  right,  a  fellowship  in  con- 
science, a  fellowship  with  God  in  the  knowledge  of 
what  is  just  and  good. 

And  if  we  look  at  our  economic  system  as  a  system 
of  distribution  of  the  produce  of  labour  among  those 
who  have  had  a  share  in  producing  it,  by  the  foresight 
and  self-denial  of  past  labour,  by  present  labour  of  the 
brain  or  of  the  hand,  the  conception  of  wages,  of  pay- 
ment for  service  done,  carries  us  into  a  region  certainly 
not  more  alien  to  the  spirit  of  love.  Of  late  here,^ 
more  than  elsewhere,  you  have  had  to  deal  with  those 
kind  of  difficulties  which  bring  out  the  fact  that,  in 
the  problem  of  distribution,  man  is  dealing  directly 
with  the  vital  needs  of  his  fellow-man.  Tenderness 
and  forbearance,  charity  and  self-sacrifice,  come  into 
play  in  these  relations  most  of  all,  because  they  are 
personal.  And  our  present  commercial  troubles  carry 
at  least  one  blessing  with  them,  if  they  do  away,  in 
some  degree,  with  the  evils  incident  to  the  large  scale 
system  of  industry  which  has  come  into  vogue  during 
^  In  Dundee. 


COMPETITION  AND   CO-OPERATION  249 

the  last  hundred  years^  by  restoring  a  keener  sense  of 
personal  relation,  a  warmer  kindness,  a  heartier  fellow- 
ship between  those  who  have  to  divide  the  produce 
of  the  labour,  on  which  each  has  expended  some  portion 
of  that  which  goes  to  make  up  his  life.  Love  is  at 
home  wherever  person  has  to  do  with  person,  living 
soul  with  living  soul,  and  that  on  which  soul  and  body 
live. 

I  have  tried  to  draw  out  and  to  put  forth  how  the 
spirit  of  love  and  good  will  finds  a  natural  sphere 
for  its  activity  in  our  present  economic  relations,  under 
the  different  aspects  in  which  we  commonly  regard 
them.  I  do  not  think  you  will  be  inclined  to  say  that 
I  have  gone  beyond  my  record. 

And  yet  you  and  I  alike  have  surely  been  haunted 
all  along  by  the  shadow  of  another  thing  that  would 
shape  itself,  in  spite  of  us,  out  of  the  very  materials 
of  which  we  were  making  our  picture  of  love.  Let 
us  look  this  ghost  of  facts  in  the  face. 

What  we  have  been  haunted  by  all  along  is  a  kind 
of  counter-statement  of  fact.     At  every  turn  2.  And  yet, 

.  .  .    ,      at  the  iame 

we   have   been  inclined    to   interpose   with  time,  a  sys- 
tem of  com- 

the  fact  of   competition.     Competition  :  the  p«"^io"- 
materials  for  the  picture  are  so  ample  as  to  make  it 
difficult — it  is  fortunately  needless — to  draw  it.     We 
know  that  our  economic  life  is  full  of  competition,  we, 


250  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

and  sometimes  our  consciences,  are  painfully  conscious 
of  the  fact.  And  yet  this  it  is  necessary  to  observe — 
that  competition  is  an  essential  part  of  our  economic 
life  in  every  aspect  of  it  which  we  have  considered. 
Competition  is  a  productive  power;  it  promotes 
and  stimulates  every  improvement  in  the  productive 
machinery.  The  rate  of  production  w^ould  not  have 
advanced,  the  quality  of  things  produced  would  not 
have  risen  in  anything  like  the  same  degree  without 
it.  Competition  is  of  the  very  life  of  exchange  ;  it  is 
the  very  means  by  which  that  comparative  utility  of 
products  is  gauged  which  gives  each  its  value  to  the 
buyer;  it  is  the  means  by  which  the  exact  cost  of  pro- 
duction is  ascertained  which  is  the  limit  of  price  to 
the  seller ;  it  is  competition,  again,  which  actually 
does  decide  the  rate  of  interest  and  the  wages  of  brain 
and  hand  labourers,  which  is  the  force  at  work  in 
distribution.  There  is  far  more  than  this  that  forms 
part  of  the  familiar  picture.  Strife,  and  reckless  self- 
interest,  and  the  struggle  for  bare  life  between  man 
and  man — these,  too,  follow  like  a  shadow  on  the 
common  meaning  of  the  word.  There  is  false  compe- 
tition and  true,  good  competition  and  bad,  no  doubt. 
But  I  suppose  our  first  and  broad  impression  is,  that 
competition  is  an  essential  part  of  the  economic 
system,  and  that  it  will  not  bear  much  light ;  that  if 


COMPETITION  AND   CO-OPERATION.  251 

we  set  it,  as  a  feature  in  life,  face  to  face  with  the 
saintly  character,  it  would  have  reason  to  hide  its 
face  and  be  ashamed. 

Well,  then,  here   stand   these   two   broad,   surface, 
economic  facts,  features  of  our  whole  eco-     xhe  ideal 

.  r"       J  /•     ii  -\' f        '  1     of  saintliness 

nomic   system,  leatures  01   the  liie   m   and  says,  at  least. 

Subordinate 

by  which  we   live — it   is  a   system  of  co-  competition 
*'  "^  to  co-opera- 

operation,   it    is   a    system   of    competition.  "°"' 

What  does  Christianity  say  to  them  ?  Does  it  say, 
"  Of  course,  you  must  compete,  but  don't  forget  to 
co-operate"?  Does  it  say,  "Don't  carry  competition 
too  far,"  or,  "  Let  co-operation  modify  co-operation  "  ? 
I  don't  think  it  says  any  of  these  things.  If  com- 
petition is,  as  I  believe  it  is,  a  real  and  useful,  that 
is,  a  helpful  part  of  our  economic  life,  Christianity 
has  not  got  to  blink  it,  or  to  put  it  in  a  corner. 
What  I  think  Christian  principle  does  say,  is  this  : 
Co-operation,  fellow-help,  is  the  dominant,  competition 
the  subordinate  principle.  Mutual  help  for  life  is  the 
end  and  guiding  principle  of  conduct  in  economic  as 
well  as  in  all  other  matters.  If,  and  in  so  far  as 
competition  takes  its  place  in  a  system  of  mutual 
help,  it  is  good.  Wherever  it  runs  counter  to  the  law 
of  help,  it  is  bad.  This  is  the  general — it  may  seem  a 
very  general — principle ;  but  it  is  worth  something. 
These  are  things  which  have  to  do  with  the  lives 


252  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

of  every  one  of  us  every  day.  It  is  not  for  me  to 
say  how  far,  or  in  what  proportion,  or  in  what  rela- 
tion these  two  motives,  the  instinct  to  co-operate, 
and  the  instinct  to  compete,  are  mingled  in  your  lives. 
That  is  for  you  to  say.  All  that  I  have  laid  down 
is  this :  If  all  this  region  of  your  life  has  been 
governed  by  the  working  of  Christ  in  you,  for  the 
love  and  help  of  men,  thank  God  for  His  grace,  and 
for  the  consecration  of  your  life,  to-day,  with  a  full 
heart.  If  competition,  or  what  comes  of  it,  has  been 
either  a  region  of  your  life  left  outside  the  influence 
of  religion,  or  if  the  word  represents  difficulties  of 
conscience,  scruples,  a  sort  of  inarticulate  remorse, 
I  believe  that  a  guiding  thread  is  to  be  found  in 
even  so  general  a  principle  as  this,  that  competition 
is  always  a  means,  never  an  end,  always  a  means  to 
more  vigorous,  more  effectual,  mutual  help  of  man 
by  man,  and  never  justifies  a  single  violation  of  the 
law  of  love. 

This  will  mean,  at  least,  that  we  must  never  shrug 
our  shoulders  at  the  results  of  competition,  or  treat 
them  as  though  the  working  of  this  sacred  principle 
must  not  be  interfered  with.  It  is  a  means  to  an 
end.  If  it  is  failing  to  attain  the  end,  let  us  see 
why  our  machine  does  not  work,  and  try  to  make  it 
work  better. 


COMPETITION  AND   CO-OPERATION.  253 

Again,  does  not  this  view  of  competition  draw  a 
fairly  clear  distinction  between  the  very  ideas  of  true 
and  false  competition  ?  Does  not  the  true  link  itself 
rather  with  the  meaning  of  emulation,  of  rivalry  in 
good  works,  or,  if  you  like,  in  good  work,  and  the 
false  with  strife  and  unregarded  pain ;  and  cannot  we 
ourselves — at  least,  in  our  own  sphere — draw  the  line 
between  the  two  ?     If  so,  we  must  do  it. 

And,  lastly,  if  you  yourselves  are  at  any  time  in  any 
degree  sufferers  by  the  working  of  this  principle  of 
competition,  does  not  this  view  of  competition  elevate 
and  dignify  your  loss  ?  You  were  paid  for  what  you 
did  well  at  a  fair  price ;  now  others  do  it  better,  or  at 
a  lower  cost,  and  your  suffering  loss  is  an  incident  of 
this  gain  to  those  you  serve.  It  is  your  part,  then, 
to  show  the  patience  and  humility  of  those  who  are 
"  called  to  be  saints,"  to  look  how  you  may  do  better 
work,  or  other  work,  which  shall  deserve  its  reward. 
And  if  the  days  of  prosperity  have  made  it  hard 
to  come  down,  hard  to  begin  afresh,  the  lesson  of 
patience  and  humility  is  not  less  needed.  It  is  not 
less  true  in  this  region  than  others,  that  "  those  whom 
God  loveth  He  chasteneth."  Let  it  be  said  of  you  as 
it  was  said  of  the  saints  of  old,  "Though  they  be 
punished  in  the  sight  of  men,  yet  is  their  hope  full 
of  immortality.    And  having  been  a  little  chastised. 


254  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

they  shall  be  greatly  rewarded  :  for  God  proved  them, 
and  found  them  worthy  for  Himself.  As  gold  in  the 
furnace  hath  He  tried  them,  and  received  them  as  a 
burnt  offering.  And  in  the  time  of  their  visitation 
they  shall  shine,  and  run  to  and  fro  like  sparks  among 
the  stubble." 


XV 

THE  PRACTICABILITY  OF  THE  PRIN- 
CIPLES OF  RIGHT. 

"  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  but  My  words  shall  not  pass 
away." — S.  Matt.  xxiv.  35. 

If   we   look   at   life   as   it  is   pictured   in  the  New 
Testament,   and   then   at   life   as   it   is,  the  Contrast  of 

Christian 

view  must  leave  upon  our  minds  the  impres-  and  chris- 
sion  of  an  almost  appalling  contrast.  tSe.^'^'''^" 

On  the  one  side  is  a  system  for  the  ordering  of  life, 
a  law,  a  code,  a  body  of  cogent  and  imperious  prin- 
ciples ;  and  on  the  other,  a  tangled  and  broken  web, 
disordered,  and  disdaining  order,  governed,  or  govern- 
ing itself  on  lines  that  run  counter  to  almost  every 
detail  of  that  diviner  plan. 

On  the  one  side  we  have  such  ideas  as  these,  "  It 
is  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive,"  "  Bear  ye 
one  another's  burdens,"  "  Submit  yourselves  one  to 
another,"  "  I  came  into  the  world  not  to  do  My  own 


256  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

will,"  and  the  example  of  Him  "Who  went  about 
doing  good,"  and  died  upon  the  Cross;  and  on  the 
other,  the  spirit  of  competition,  the  ideal  of  indepen- 
dence, and  the  worship  of  comfort  and  success. 

The  contrast  may  easily  be  heightened;  neither 
picture  can  be  easily  overdrawn.  If  you  look  first  at 
the  ideal,  then  at  the  reality,  it  would  almost  seem 
as  though  some  mighty  fiend  had  been  at  work, 
'  trying  how  best  he  could  produce  a  parody,  a  carica- 
ture, a  ghastly  lampoon  on  Christianity. 

Look  closer  at  the  belief  and  life  of  those  who 
profess  the  Faith,  and  we  have  the  same  contrast  in 
a  smaller  compass.  Take  the  principles  laid  down 
in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  see  how  many  of 
them  are  shelved  and  set  aside.  They  are  classed  in 
our  minds  as  unpractical,  because  impracticable.  We 
do  not  trouble  ourselves  to  give  them  a  meaning; 
they  are  so  far  away  from  the  life  we  live.  "  Give  to 
him  that  asketh  thee,"  "  Love  your  enemies,"  "  Lay 
not  up  for  yourselves  treasure  upon  earth,"  "  No  man 
can  serve  two  masters,"  "Take  no  thought  for  your 
life,  what  ye  shall  eat,"  "Judge  not,"  "Enter  ye  in 
at  the  strait  gate."  Who  can  say  that  his  life  is, 
in  theory  even,  governed  by  these  ?  At  most,  they 
have  some  practical  influence  on  what  we  are  pleased 
to  call  the  spirit  of  our  lives — as  though  His  spirit 


PRACTICABILITY  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  RIGHT.    257 

were  not  meant  to  take  bodily  and  substantial  shape. 
Who  was  Himself  '*  the  Word  made  flesh."  The 
teaching,  the  theory,  the  system,  the  principles  of 
Christianity,  we  leave  to  sound  in  our  ears  in  the 
parentheses  of  life  ;  to  listen  to  them  is  the  luxury 
of  our  leisure,  to  make  their  music  familiar,  that  it 
may  soothe  our  souls  in  death.  But  life,  practical 
life,  the  business  and  work  of  it,  and  the  governing, 
dominant,  inexorable,  authoritative  principles  of  Christ 
— Christianity  and  life — they  are  incompatible,  they 
must  exist  side  by  side,  and  modify  each  other,  and 
rub  along  as  they  may ;  there  can  be  no  close  union 
between  them,  no  submission  of  either  to  the  other. 
We  do  not  say  all  this;  but  does  the  justification 
of  our  practice  come  to  less?  Do  not  we  who  are 
religious  show,  like  the  world  at  large,  a  glaring 
contrast  between  life  as  it  is  and  the  morality  of 
Christ  ?  Do  we  not  in  effect  turn  upon  God,  and  say, 
"  You  made  a  mistake  ;  you  sent  Christianity  into  the 
wrong  world.  In  some  other  world,  in  some  far 
distant  star,  these  laws  of  love  will  hold  and  rule, 
and  their  eyes  will  '  see  the  King  in  His  beauty.' 
But  here,  in  the  stress  and  throng  of  struggling 
life,  love  can  only  flourish  like  some  exotic,  nursed 
through  life  in  the  warm  and  sheltered  places  of  the 
world  "  ? 


258  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

But  is  it  true  ?  If  the  thing  formed  dared  say  to 
practSihe  Him  that  formed  it,  "  Why  hast  Thou  made 
of  liferasTt"  me  thus  ? "  and  man  lift  up  his  voice  against 

is,  necessi- 

Indoffers'Se  ^^^   Maker,  could  we  make    this  our  plea  ? 
ofwmtngor   Look  closer  at  the  life  that  is  about  you, 

reluctant  _ 

service.  and  SGC. 

Science  has  had  opened  before  it  wonderful  and 
endless  vistas  in  the  realm  of  system  and  law,  cor- 
relation of  force  with  force,  interdependence  of  one 
law  with  a  thousand  more,  all  world-wide  in  their 
scope  and  unswerving  in  their  operation.  As  little  as 
we  can  dream  of  a  limit  of  space,  or  an  end  to  the 
possible  perception  of  parts  and  movement  within  the 
walls  of  the  minutest  atom,  so  little  can  we  imagine 
any  limit  to  the  endless  analysis  of  law  within  law, 
to  the  complexity  of  the  play  of  interdependent  forces 
which  penetrate  the  matter  of  the  world.  And  yet 
the  wonder  of  this  world  of  law  is  as  nothing  if  we 
set  it  side  by  side  with  that  other  world  in  which 
we — we  who  analyze,  and  perceive,  and  wonder,  and 
adore — in  which  we  more  truly  and  more  nearly 
live.  It  is  to  this  world  that  we  must  look,  the 
world  of  motives  which  sway  the  will  and  move 
the  heart,  which  animate  and  develop  the  society 
in  which  we  live,  if  we  would  judge  how  far  life 
admits    the   free   operation   of    Christian   principles. 


PRACTICABILITY  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  RIGHT    259 

And  these  motives  are  as  infinitely  complex  as  the 
society  is  which  results  from  and  embodies  them. 
What,  for  instance,  are  the  forces  which  set  any  one 
man  in  his  place  in  society,  and  which  keep  him 
th-ere  ?  How  varied,  how  incalculable  a  mixture  of 
love  and  hate,  of  desire,  and  interest,  and  prejudice, 
and  fear,  and  hope,  is  brought  to  bear  upon  his  life 
as  on  a  single  point !  How  wide  is  the  range  of 
the  motives  which  have  put  him  where  he  is  !  The 
home  affections  which  nurtured  and  coloured  his 
childhood  and  youth,  the  influences  of  fellowship 
and  friendship,  the  chance  associations  of  place  and 
time,  the  self-interest  of  others  which  has  advanced 
him  or  kept  him  back,  their  generosity,  their  fancies, 
their  weaknesses,  even  their  vices — all  these  are  so 
many  attractive  and  repellent  forces,  which  fix  him 
in  his  place  in  the  moral  universe,  and  set  him  his 
work,  and  give  him  his  fortune  for  life.  They  have 
formed  his  character  and  determined  his  opportu- 
nities. The  life  and  personality  of  any  single  man 
are  example  enough  of  the  complexity  of  the  motive 
forces  which  play  through  that  life  of  society  which 
we  share.  In  this  maze  of  conflicting  motives,  how 
are  Christian  principles  to  be  brought  to  bear  ? 

Well,  take  him  as  he  stands,  the  individual  man, 
in  the  midst  of  this  world,  and,  through  all  the  con- 


26o  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

fusing  variety  of  impulses  which  affect  his  position, 
we  can  discern  these  two  simple  truths.  He  is  there 
to  do  some  work  for  society,  and  his  position  is,  as 
it  were,  the  payment  which  society  gives  him  for  his 
work.  He  has  work  to  do,  and,  in  one  form  or 
another,  wages  to  receive.  It  follows  from  this,  that 
he  has  two  alternative  motives  for  his  work — the 
good  of  others,  and  his  own  gain.  And  though  the 
difference  in  the  moral  value  of  a  life  animated  by 
the  one  or  the  other  be  infinite,  these  two  motives 
will,  as  regards  a  great  portion  of  his  life,  dictate 
the  same  course  of  action.  Generalize  this  statement, 
and  the  conclusion  is,  that  society  as  it  is,  is  held 
together  by  the  joint  or  alternative  action  of  two 
motives — on  the  one  hand  a  desire  to  do  good  work 
for  others,  on  the  other  hand  by  self-interest.  Small 
doubt  the  two  produce  different  results  in  many  ways  ; 
still  less  doubt  that  where  they  produce  the  same 
result,  it  is  externally,  not  morally  the  same.  But, 
externally,  it  is  very  largely  the  same  result  that 
these  two  opposite  forces  of  selfish  and  unselfish  desire 
are  working  out. 

It  may  be  said  that,  taking  the  life  of  society  as 
a  whole,  selfish  motives  have  by  far  the  larger  share 
in  its  organization,  or  it  may  be  denied.  Whether 
it    is   so   or  not,   as   society  stands,  a  man's  selfish- 


PRACTICABILITY  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  RIGHT.   261 

ness,  if  he  is  fortunate  enough  to  have  any  work  at 
all,   cannot  easily  make  his  life   altogether  n  offers,  at 

1  TT  •  •  1  J.  •  ^^^^'^1  the 

useless.     He  must  ffive  m  order  to  receive,  occasion  of 

"  unselfish 

The  usefulness  of  the  work  done  increases  ^^^"'• 
with  the  unselfishness  of  the  motive  that  prompts  it. 
For  instance,  the  love  of  work  itself,  apart  from  its 
results,  produces,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  better  results 
than  the  love  of  gain,  and  so  on  through  the  various 
gradations  of  motive  up  to  the  highest.  But  even 
at  the  lowest  point,  the  collective  selfishness,  if  it  be 
nothing  more,  secures  that  though  a  man  may  only 
desire  his  own  good,  he  cannot  get  it  without  doing 
some  good  to  others.  Thus,  not  only  is  there  a 
general  level  secured  of  good  done,  from  whatever 
motive;  but  the  result  is  this,  that  almost  ever^^ 
man,  by  the  very  necessities  of  his  life,  finds  him- 
self in  a  position  in  which  he  has  immediate  occa- 
sion for  the  exercise  of  unselfishness.  It  is  a  small 
matter  that  he  has  the  occasion,  no  doubt ;  he  must 
have  the  will  to  make  a  change  in  himself;  but, 
at  least,  he  cannot  plead  that  the  life  in  which  he 
finds  himself  involved  is  at  war  with  the  principles 
on  which  he  is  called  to  act ;  that  the  world  in 
which  he  lives  is  no  field  for  their  operation.  No 
doubt  the  incoming  of  a  higher  spirit  will  make 
great  and  visible  changes  in   his  outward  practice  ; 


262  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

but  there  is  a  practical  body  of  work  which  he 
has  always  been  required  to  do,  which  offers  itself 
at  once  as  the  congenial  and  appropriate  organism 
for  the  new  spirit  to  enter  and  to  animate.  There 
are  channels,  ready  made,  through  which  the  new 
blood  may  flow ;  there  is  the  skeleton  and  frame- 
work which  may  be  clothed  with  the  loveliness  of 
life.  All  is  ready  for  the  new  spirit;  as  of  old, 
it  may  be  said,  "A  body  hast  Thou  prepared  for 
me." 

I  have  supposed  the  case  of  a  life  of  work  in  the 
world,  but  governed  by  wholly  selfish  motives,  to 
exemplify,  merely  in  an  extreme  case,  the  truth  that 
life  affords  a  ready  and  open  field  for  the  exercise  of 
those  higher  principles  which,  at  first  sight,  seem  alien 
from  its  general  practice.  Most  of  us  have  lived  and 
done  our  work,  partly,  at  least,  under  more  unselfish 
impulses.  Again,  I  have  taken,  as  an  instance  of  a 
principle  seemingly  unworkable  in  the  life  of  the 
world,  the  one  great  leading  Christian  principle  of 
unselfishness,  But  what  is  true  of  one,  may  be  shown 
to  be  true  of  all.  And  my  appeal  is  this :  Do  not 
fear  to  let  the  highest  principles  of  the  teaching  of 
Christ  rule  in  the  common  world  of  daily  life.  It  is 
a  field  in  which  they  will  be  at  home. 

I  do   not  say  it  will  be   easy  to  work  them  out 


PRACTICABILITY  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  RIGHT.    263 

into  practice ;  it  will  not.  But  it  is  our  plain  duty 
to  do  it ;  it  is  a  duty  which  we  very  largely  neglect. 
And  we  neglect  it,  to  a  great  extent,  because  in  our 
hearts  we  believe  it  to  be  hopeless.  If  it  is  hope- 
less, no  doubt  it  becomes  more  and  more  so  every 
year ;  and  every  fresh  step  in  the  complex  organiza- 
tion of  society,  every  enlargement  of  the  boundaries 
of  a  city  or  an  empire,  every  advance  in  trade,  in 
invention,  in  division  of  labour,  makes  the  idea  of 
living  a  Christian  life  in  the  world  more  chime- 
rical and  absurd — if  it  is  hopeless;  but  it  is  not. 
It  is  not  hopeless,  because,  by  no  mere  fortunate 
accident,  but  by  the  very  law  by  which  society  lives, 
its  increasing  organization  only  multiplies  oppor- 
tunities for  the  best  and  noblest  life.  As  this  or- 
ganization advances,  it  becomes  not  less,  but  more 
and  more  evidently  true  that  no  man  lives  by  him- 
self, or  for  himself,  but  takes  his  place  in  a  vast  and 
intricate  system  of  mutual  help,  in  which  he  has  his 
own  marked  and  peculiar  office,  not  to  win  what  he 
can  for  himself,  or  to  take  what  comes  to  him,  and 
then  to  make  the  best  use  of  it  he  may,  but  to  do 
that  which  is  given  him  to  do,  as  a  work  for  man 
and  for  God.  And  if  this  view  of  life  will  fit  itself, 
as  it  assuredly  will,  to  our  present  society,  then  here 
is  the  field   where  Christian  principles  ought  to  be 


264  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

shown  forth.  Christ  came  Himself  to  live  among 
men  ;  His  teaching  affects  profoundly  all  our  relations 
to  our  fellow-men ;  it  is  in  the  life  we  live  among 
our  fellow-men  that  we  should  be  Christians,  if  any- 
where. 

But  if  it  is  plainly  true  that  Christian   principles 
The  occasion  find  their  true  field  in  modern  life,  with  its 

implies  the  ...  .  i         r» 

obligation,  complcx  Organization,  its  world-wide  web  of 
thronging,  anxious  life,  then  here,  not  less  than  else- 
where, the  very  highest  Christian  principles  must  be 
authoritative  and  absolute.  They  cannot  be  occa- 
sionally, or  vaguely,  or  thoughtlessly  followed.  Our 
adoption  of  them  must  be  fearless,  absolute,  universal. 
They  must  be  governing  principles,  regardless  of  all 
consequences  but  those  which  affect  themselves  and 
their  own  working.  We  must  follow  them  distinctly, 
and  with  understanding  of  what  they  mean,  and  what 
they  involve,  with  that  deliberate,  careful  discernment 
which  comes  of  a  study  of  the  principles  of  Christ, 
and  a  desire  to  make  them  real  hard  facts  to  our- 
selves and  to  others.  Nothing  less  is  the  life  of  a 
Christian,  nothing  less  than  the  real  desire,  at  all 
costs,  to  understand  and  know  the  Mind  of  Christ  for 
lis,  to  follow  the  law  and  live  the  life  of  Christ,  here 
and  now,  where  He  has  set  our  life,  and  given  us  our 
work  to  do.     "  By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them." 


PRACTICABILITY  OF  THE  PRINCIPLES  OF  RIGHT.  26^ 

This  is  the  issue.  "Show  me  thy  faith  by  thy 
works."  Are  you  made  a  new  creature  ?  Where  is 
the  new  growth  ?  Are  you  a  member  of  the  Body  of 
Christ  ?  Every  movement  of  the  limbs  is  governed 
by  the  head.  Have  you  received  of  His  grace  and  of 
His  Spirit?  They  are  the  gift  to  you,  in  life  and 
reality,  of  His  righteousness. 

The  gift  to  you — to  every  one  alone.     Yes ;  Chris- 
tianity is,  above  all  things,  a  social  religion  which  is 

personal  and 

— it  treats  us  as  members  of  the  larger  absolute. 
society  of  the  world,  it  is  embodied  in  the  society 
of  the  Church — but  it  always  speaks  to  individuals. 
Alone  your  life  began,  alone  you  knew  the  dawning 
in  your  heart  of  a  Divine  Presence,  and  the  light 
of  holiness;  alone  is  your  converse  with  God,  your 
incommunicable  knowledge  of  His  Law.  Sole  and 
indivisible  is  your  responsibility.  Alone  you  die ; 
alone  you  shall  be  judged ;  nay,  alone  you  are  judged 
now.  You  stand  alone..  Your  position  no  other  can 
fill.  Others  may  do  the  like,  but  not  the  same ;  your 
duty  is  your  own.  Your  circumstances,  the  details 
of  your  life  and  work — all  these  are  peculiar  to  you  ; 
they  are  for  you  to  do  with  them  what  you  will. 
You  may  turn  them  either  way ;  they  are  your  own 
— the  field  which  God  has  given  to  you,  in  which  to 
work  out  His  Law,  with  careful  thought,  to  see  that 


266  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS, 

no  stone  be  left  unturned,  no  action  left  ungovemed, 
unconsidered,  uncontrolled,  free  from  the  sway  of  that 
Eternal  Law.  Heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
but  His  Word  shall  not  pass  aw^ay. 


XVI. 
ECONOMIC   FREEDOM. 

It   is  a  practical   question   to   ask,  in  conclusion,  at 
what   e^eneral  end  we  aim  in  any  chansres 

°  -^  ^         Freedom  the 

of    practice   which    would    be    produced   if  ^hJeconomic 
economic   conduct   were    considered,   as   we 
contend  it  should  be,  as  a  matter  of  Christian  morals. 
In  general  terms,  it  may  be  answered  that  we  aim  at 
the  free  attainment  of  the  economic  ideal 

Freedom  was  the  keynote  of  the  gospel  of  Political 
Economy  as  preached  by  Adam  Smith.  This  freedom 
was  the  freedom  of  production,  industry,  and  trade 
from  the  artificial  restraints  of  law,  from  those 
restraints,  especially,  which  were  dictated  by  the 
false  idea  that  money,  the  means  of  the  exchange 
of  wealth,  was  wealth  itself,  and  which,  under  this 
idea,  enriched  a  certain  number  of  traders  at  the 
expense  of  the  general  prosperity  of  the  community. 
What  was  demanded  was,  that  law  should  leave  the 
economic  machine  to  work  by  itself:  the  result  was 


268  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

anticipated  that  there  would  be  a  great  increase  in 
the  amount  of  wealth  produced,  and  in  the  prosperity 
of  the  community  at  large. 

We   have   to   set  forth   a   new   demand,  that   the 
economic    motive   should  be   set  free   from 

A  positive 

freedom' to''^  auy  rcstraluts  which  are  imposed  upon  it 
enjoy.  .^  ^^  working  of  the  economic  machinerj^, 

free  to  attain  the  result  at  which  it  really  aims, 
happiness  in  the  enjoyment  of  wealth.  Wealth  is 
its  end — not  the  production  of  wealth  only,  but  its 
just  use,  and  its  right  enjoyment — wealth,  as  it 
contributes  to  the  well-being  of  those  who  produce 
it.  This  freedom  differs  from  the  other  in  two 
respects.  It  is  not  merely  negative — the  removal  of 
restraints;  it  is  freedom  to  do  something — to  enjoy. 
Again,  it  is  human;  it  is  freedom,  not  for  a  system 
only,  but  for  men.  This  freedom  of  enjoyment  it  is 
the  aim  of  economic  morals  to  secure.  A  man's  duty 
in  regard  to  wealth  may  be  said  to  be  so  to  act  as  to 
forward  its  highest  enjoyment.  Wealth  reaches  its 
end  in  being  enjoyed.  What  is  the  moral  condition 
of  its  enjoyment  ?  What  are  the  forces  which  should 
be  at  work  in  its  production  and  its  use,  with  activity 
unhampered  by  false  motives,  undiverted  by  moral 
fallacy,  unhindered  by  sin  and  wrong  ?  What  is 
economic  freedom  ? 


ECONOMIC  FREEDOM.  269 

The  enjoyment  of  wealth  means,  first,  the  freedom 

of  energy,   a   system   of   life   in  which   all  (i)  the  free- 
dom of 
objects   of    desire    fulfil    their    function    in  energy; 

evoking  energy,  and  in  giving  the  pleasure  which 
attends  its  exercise,  in  which  the  energies  of  all 
are  called  forth  to  their  fullest  extent.  The  exist- 
ence, then,  of  an  idle  class  at  the  top  or  at  the 
bottom  of  the  scale,  is  against  the  law  of  our  ideal. 
There  is  no  apparent  enjoyment  in  idleness,  except 
in  the  freedom  to  carry  out  every  chance  caprice, 
to  exercise  the  energy  which  may  be  active  at  the 
moment,  or  at  least  to  enjoy  the  condition  in  which 
there  is  an  energy  of  enjoyment  even  in  repose. 
But  idleness  deadens  energy.  The  want  of  an 
habitual  purpose  allows  the  power  of  concentration 
to  die.  There  is  no  occasion  or  motive  for  self-denial. 
A  difficulty  becomes  a  bar,  even  to  the  execution 
of  a  whim.  In  the  ideal  economic  life  there  will  be 
no  energies  unemployed,  and  the  man  who  uses  the 
opportunities  of  a  leisured  life,  not  to  select  his  work 
with  care  and  to  pursue  it  with  deliberation,  but  to 
avoid  the  exertion  of  a  definite  purpose  and  the  pains 
of  a  deliberate  pursuit,  will  be  seen,  not  only  to  throw 
away  his  own  life,  but  to  commit  a  crime  against  the 
society  whose  resources  it  is  his  pleasure  to  waste. 
He  is  a  mere  moneyed  vagrant;  he  will  not  work, 


270  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

neither  should  he  eat.  The  ideal  economic  life  would 
offer  to  the  energies  of  all  opportunity  for  exercise, 
such  as  they  could  resist  only  by  a  very  deliberate 
rejection  of  what  would  be  obviously  seen  to  be  a 
right  and  desirable  life. 

The  life  which  the  existing  economic  system  too 
often  does  offer  to  the  energies  of  youth,  is  a  life  of 
deadening  routine.  In  early  years  the  routine  is 
enforced,  in  later  years  it  becomes  voluntary,  for  the 
sake  of  what  experience  teaches  that  the  machine 
may  be  expected  to  produce.  But  the  work,  the 
employment  of  the  energies,  remains  in  many  cases 
routine  work  still,  unintelligent,  unfeeling.  Educa- 
tion in  these  cases  has  a  great  deal  to  answer  for ; 
education  which  has  failed  in  its  main  object  of 
setting  before  the  boy  the  life  which  the  man  must 
lead,  as  a  life  dignified  by  its  purpose  and  by  the 
spirit  in  which  it  should  be  undertaken  ;  education 
which  has  failed  to  make  those,  who  do  work  that 
must  be  dull,  sharers  in  other  interests  and  other 
pursuits,  since  it  has  not  developed  in  them  the 
tastes  and  capacities  which  these  interests  and 
pursuits  employ ;  which  has  left  them  capable  of 
being  converted  into  useful  machines,  incapable  of 
ennobling  or  finding  pleasure  in  the  sacrifice  which 
their  life  calls  upon  them  to  make. 


ECONOMIC  FREEDOM.  271 

Our  present  economic  life  affords  instances  enough 
of  another  kind  of  employment  of  energy,  busy, 
restless,  unceasing,  absorbed,  in  those  who  care  for 
their  business  and  care  for  nothing  else.  They 
represent  the  existing  economic  system  at  its  best, 
but  they  are  very  far  indeed  from  being  instances  of 
the  true  enjoyment  of  energy.  The  energy  which  is 
incapable  of  rest  is  incapable  of  enjoyment.  The 
man  has  become  a  slave  to  his  work.  Every  man 
must  give  himself  up  to  his  particular  pursuit;  he 
must  devote  to  it  the  best  of  his  time  and  of  his 
strength;  but  it  should  leave  him  with  time  and 
force  enough  to  enter  into  and  enjoy  some  other 
processes  or  results  of  human  activity.  His  time 
should  not  be  so  absorbed  that  his  life  is  an  alterna- 
tive of  work  and  sleep,  nor  his  powers  so  possessed 
by  one  pursuit,  that  he  cannot  share  in  any  other 
part  of  the  general  life  to  which  he  contributes. 
Restless  energy  is  the  energy  of  a  partially  developed 
nature,  in  which  all  faculties  but  one  are  dwarfed, 
and  the  exercise  of  that  is  unenjoyed,  because  there 
is  no  "man  left  to  enjoy  it.  In  the  ideal  economic 
life,  then,  every  man  would  have  such  conditions  as 
to  enable  him  to  find  recreation,  after  the  exercise  of 
one  set  of  faculties,  in  the  development  of  others,  and 
Tvould  so  not  only  supplement  his  work  with  amuse- 


272  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

ment,  but  transfuse  life  and  pleasure  into  the  work 
itself 

The  enjoyment  of  wealth  means,  secondly,  freedom 
, .  freedom  ^^  fellowship  and  sympathy.  Fellowship  is 
of  sympathy;  ^  coudition  of  happiuess  in  the  enjoyment 
of  wealth.  Happiness  we  have  already  construed  in 
a  sense,  which  excludes  from  the  meaning  of  the 
word  the  mere  lazy  enjoyment  of  resources.  Happi- 
ness, in  the  sense  in  which  we  speak  of  it,  is  an 
energetic  life,  and  it  is  a  life  of  intensely  social  energy. 
There  should  be  fellowship  between  fellow-workers 
in  the  same  industry,  there  should  be  fellowship 
between  different  industries,  and  industrial  fellowship 
between  different  nations.  There  should  be  fellow- 
ship between  the  different  social  grades  in  the  in- 
dustrial system,  between  masters  and  men,  employers 
and  employed,  the  brain  and  the  hand  of  labour. 
There  should  be  nothing  approaching  to  caste  distinc- 
tions, no  hard  and  fast  divisions.  The  first  condition 
of  this  practical  union  of  S3"mpathy  is  fellowship  in 
industry. 

The  obligation  to  work  at  any  sacrifice  of  ease  and 
comfort  required  by  the  efficiency  of  the  work,  should 
be  equally  and  visibly  felt  from  the  bottom  to  the 
top  of  the  industrial  scale.  The  mere  sense  that 
the   labour   of  production  is  shared  will  go   a  long 


ECONOMIC  FREEDOM.  273 

way  to  break  down  the  barriers,  which  our  modern 
system  of  large-scale  industry  has  built  up,  between 
those  who,  under  the  domestic  system,  used  to  work 
side  by  side,  though  none  the  less  they  were  master 
and  man. 

But,  beyond  this,  the  ideal  economic  system  would 
give  a  fellowship  in  conditions  between  the  different 
members  of  the  economic  body.  In  the  actual 
economic  system  the  conditions  are  very  different  for 
different  grades  of  work,  and  for  the  work  of  master 
and  of  man.  It  would  be  visionary  to  expect  to 
create  a  system  in  which  this  inequality  of  conditions 
should  not  exist.  But  it  is  no  dispraise  of  a  moral 
ideal  to  call  it  visionary.  The  relative  risk  in  success 
or  failure  in  a  higher  and  lower  grade  of  work  may 
be  equalized,  where  the  sense  of  fellowship  in  those 
in  the  higher  grade  is  strong  enough.  The  just  and 
proportionate  share  of  produce  which  cannot  be 
exacted  may  be  given.  The  scope  for  individual 
energy,  enterprise,  and  skill,  which  is  the  prerogative 
of  the  master,  may  be  voluntarily  shared  with  those 
whom  he  employs.  Much  may  be  done  towards 
realizing  the  ideal  of  fellowship,  not  only  in  labour, 
but  in  the  stake  in  its  success,  in  the  sphere  it  ofiers 
for  intelligence  and  adventure,  in  the  aim,  which 
should  be   set  to   all   alike,  of  thorough   work,  the 


274  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

outcome  of  a  life  wholesome  in  its  surroundings  and 
secure  in  its  basis,  producing  sound  and  useful  results 
for  the  benefit  of  the  community  at  large.  It  would 
be  an  enormous  stimulus  to  the  full  employment  of 
the  energies  of  all  the  workers  in  an  industry,  that 
all  should  be  made  to  feel  themselves  fellow-workers 
in  a  common  concern,  in  which  all  have,  in  proportion 
to  their  powers,  common  risks  and  a  common  sphere 
of  life,  and  with  whose  success  each  can  identify  the 
realization  of  his  own  best  personal  ambition. 

Lastly,  we  should  move  towards  the  ideal  of  a 
fellowship  in  enjoyments.  Here,  again,  education  has 
the  greatest  part  to  play,  and  education  has  yet  to 
realize  the  mission  of  developing  the  powers  of  enjoy- 
ment. But  a  gi^at  deal  is  done,  when  we  see  that 
we  ought  not  to  acquiesce,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
in  a  wholly  different  moral  standard  of  enjoyment 
in  different  classes  of  society,  and  that  the  obligation 
of  diffusing  a  taste  for  higher  and  more  refined 
enjoyment  rests  on  those  who  possess  it.  No  one 
would  underrate  the  value  of  the  sympathy,  which 
stretches  out  a  hand  across  the  gulf  that  separates 
employers  and  employed,  to  give  help  in  times  of 
sickness  or  trouble.  This  sympathy  does  make  a 
real  bond  of  fellowship.  But  this  fellowship  discloses 
the  want  of  a  more  constant  sympathy,  a  more  per- 


ECONOMIC  FREEDOM.  275 

vading  similarity  of  tastes,  for  literature,  for  art,  for 
every  kind  of  physical  and  mental  exercise,  for  whole- 
some and  graceful  ways  of  life.  The  best  prized 
wages  of  success  are  not  the  ones  to  be  enjoyed  in 
selfish  contentment  with  social  superiority. 

But,  thirdly,  we  must  say  that  the  ideal  economic 
system  will,  above  all  things,  have  this  for  its  (3)  freedom 

of  enjoy- 

characteristic,  that  wealth,  the  commodities  ^^n^- 
produced,  are  really  enjoyed  to  the  full.  And  the 
enjoyment  of  wealth  means  the  real,  living  use  of  com- 
modities. The  power  of  things,  produced  by  human 
industry  and  art,  to  delight  the  human  mind  and  heart 
needs  to  be  freed  from  whatever  bonds  now  imprison 
in  material  things  their  spiritual  efficacy  upon  the 
souls  of  men.  It  is  the  men  who  must  be  freed,  in 
whom  the  powers  of  enjoyment  must  be  liberated  from 
the  oppression  of  ignorance  and  habit 

The  living  use  of  commodities  is,  first,  an  under- 
standing use  of  them.  We  should  know  the  world  to 
which  they  belong,  their  material  and  spiritual  con- 
text ;  we  should  know  and  see  in  them  the  labour  it 
has  cost  to  produce  them,  the  labour  which  lives 
embodied  in  them;  we  should  know  the  uses  to 
which  they  may  be  rightly  put.  We  are  all  familiar 
with  the  savages  who  were  delighted  with  the  acqui- 
sition of  the  European  trousers,  and  wore  them  round 


276  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

their  necks;  but  we  are  unconscious  how  often  a 
similar  farce  is  enacted  before  our  eyes,  perhaps  even 
by  ourselves,  with  things  made  for  use  and  pleasure, 
perverted  to  misuse  in  which  there  is  neither  sense 
nor  enjoyment. 

And  there  should  be  feeling,  as  well  as  understand- 
ing, in  the  use  even  of  the  meanest  kind  of  wealth. 
The  pleasure  of  the  maker  in  his  work — if  his  power 
of  taking  pleasure  in  the  inaking  has  not  been  seared 
and  killed — will  express  itself  in  some  touch  of  grace 
or  beauty  in  the  product.  The  vulgar  mind  is  dead 
to  this  and  disregards  it,  and  vulgarity  is  an  economic 
sin.  In  the  moral  ideal  of  economic  life  is  included 
the  training  of  a  taste  which  shall  take  pleasure  in 
an  ordered  life,  where  things  are  in  their  true  places 
and  are  put  to  their  true  uses,  and  where  the  pleasure 
in  order  and  fitness  finds  expression  in  beauty  and  in 
grace. 

And,  further,  the  living  use  of  things  is  real  and 
purposeful,  not  wanton,  wasteful,  or  misguided.  There 
is  a  deliberate  abuse  of  wealth  to  be  excluded, 
besides  the  misuse  of  ignorance.  The  abuse  of  wealth 
to  purposes  of  vice,  of  intemperance,  or  luxury,  or 
sloth,  is  an  economic  sin — apart  from  its  essentially 
vicious  character,  whatever  that  may  be.  It  is  the 
burial  of  human   efforts,   which   have   afforded    the 


ECONOMIC  FREEDOM.  277 

produce,  in  shame  and  evil ;  it  is  the  destruction  of 
possibilities  of  good  which  are  latent  in  what  we 
abuse ;  it  is  the  waste  of  human  power  and  human 

joy- 

We  have  spoken  here  of  the  economic  ideal  of  the 
enjoyment  of  wealth  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
consumer.  At  every  turn  we  have  been  reminded, 
how  the  absence  of  understanding  and  feeling  and 
purpose  in  those  Avho  use  it  has  bred  the  incapacity 
to  put  mind,  or  heart,  or  will  into  his  work  in  the 
worker.  But  we  are  drawing  the  ideal  in  the  spirit 
of  whose  aim  we  must  set  about  our  economic  duty, 
and  we  must  not  be  checked  by  the  distance  to  which 
our  own  fault  has  removed  the  ideal  at  which  we 
aim. 

Would  the  realization  of  such  an  ideal  tend  to  give 
material  wealth  and  its  enjoyment  too  strong  a  hold 
on  the  affections  of  men  ?  Sloth  and  selfishness  and 
an  irrational  and  unfeeling  use  of  wealth  surely  makes 
men  worse  slaves  of  material  things !  A  spiritual 
enjoyment  makes  men  conscious  that  the  spirit  is 
more  than  the  matter  which  embodies  it.  Certainly 
it  is  the  greatest  need  in  the  economic  ideal,  to  hold 
by  the  indifference  of  all  material  things,  in  com- 
parison with  the  spirit  of  life  and  love,  which  we 
have  seen  may  be  realized  in  their  production  and 


278  CHRISTIAN  ECONOMICS. 

their  use.      The  last   feature   in  the   moral   ideal  of 

economic    life   is   the   power   to   sacrifice   the   lower 

wealth   always   to    the   higher,   material   wealth    to 

moral  and  spiritual  well-being,  all  comfort,  and  ease, 

and  labour,  and  life  itself.  \q  the  love  of  men  and 

of  God.  vjJ^^^^R^S^ 

>"   OF  THE 


[uhivbrsitt; 


"^ 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
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AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 

WILL  BE  ASSESSED  FOR  FAILURE  TO  RETURN 
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OVERDUE. 


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